Residents of Manga in Borabu constituency took to streets on Monday to show their fury over alleged rampant cases of child labour in the region.
This comes after officials from Nyansiongo Child Rescue Center rescued four children from different homesteads where they were allegedly subjected to hard labour without payments.
Led by Philip Mong’are from Human Right’s Mars Group, they urged the police to execute a crackdown and rescue more children who were being used as house helps.
“We have come together to show that we don’t support child labour and those who are involved in the illicit activity should be apprehended and arraigned in court. Police should execute a crackdown because we know many school going pupils are being subjected to child labor because of poverty,” Mong’are said.
He challenged county commissioner of Nyamira Josephine Onunga to lead campaigns to combat the crime.
“Child labour is a crime and the government is doing little to remedy it. We have written to the county commissioner and we hope she is going to take an action over the matter and help us to combat it,” he added.
Nyansiongo rescue center director Jane Nyaberi admitted rise in child labour incidents in the region and urged locals to work as a team to combat the menace.
“It’s not the first time. In 2015 alone, we have rescued over 20 children and taken them to school. We need the government to chip in fully and help us fight the menace as a team. Locals also have a role to play,” she said.