Street families headed for rehab

BY BEAUTTAH OMANGA

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has directed all councils to include in their budgetary allocations a vote towards the rehabilitation of street families.

Mudavadi revealed that his ministry was already working on a cabinet paper that will see more intervention from various government ministries in addressing the plight of the families estimated at over 300,000.

He said all councils must have clear mechanism to bail of the families, locally termed as chokora, in their respective areas instead of waiting for the intervention the central government.

" Under the new constitution, rehabilitation of street families is the responsibility of the counties. The councils have to device ways to sorting out the needs of the orphans and abandoned children who litter the streets," said the minister.

He said in future, the government will rate the council chiefs and mayors across the country on how ell managed the children’s affairs are handled among other measures.

Mudavadi who is also the Local Government minister issued the directive on Wednesday during the launch of Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund Strategic Plan 2010-2015 in Nairobi.

Accompanied by PS Karega Mutahi, the minister told about 200 officials who included Mayors, council chairmen and chief officers that the plight of the children must be addressed.

The trust’s chairman Manu Chandaria disclosed that in the next five years, sh3.25billion was required to implement the elaborate plan.

The money, Dr Chandaria said, will be used in building the knowledge base on the plight of the families, establish a fund for rehabilitation, reintegration and prevention programmes for the families, design systems and structures for effective implementation of rehabilitation, re-integration and prevention programmes and to lobby the government.

" I am preparing a cabinet memorandum on the provision of elaborate mechanism for rehabilitating street families and to ensure functioning preventative programmes are in place," he said.

He challenged the ministry of finance to allocate more resources to the fund and the ministry of Gender to allocate funds to target the orphans and vulnerable children in the urban informal settlements.