Rid Nairobi of growing street families

A proliferation of street families in Nairobi is once more being experienced. Some Nairobi residents look back to 2015 when US President Barack Obama visited Kenya and the streets were clear of the families with nostalgia. For once in decades, people could walk the streets without worry.

Granted, many of these families have been driven to the streets by the hardships of life and broken families. A bigger majority are children as young as five years old and women carrying toddlers. But even then, there are those who hide behind them to perpetrate crime.

Street families have become synonymous with pick-pocketing, snatching valuables from pedestrians and yanking off driving mirrors from cars in parking lots. On foot bridges, you find them begging for alms, sometimes demanding by force. In Nairobi's Central Business District, they hang around eateries and harass patrons.

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero must rid Nairobians of this growing menace. These families ought to be taken off the streets and the younger ones taken to rehabilitation homes where they can assess schooling and learn some trade that could be income generating for their sustenance. Council askaris should expend some of the energy they use chasing after hawkers to round up the troublesome street children to make Nairobi safe.