Integrated education for life NGO in Kamwangi wants the government to take action against parents of street urchins.
Speaking to the press in Kamwangi on Friday, Simon Gakuya the director of the NGO observed that many of the street children have parents and close relatives who could feed and cloth them.
"As much as the society wants to help the poor, it’s very unfair for able bodied parents to send their children to the streets and expect other people to shoulder their burdens," he noted.
Majority of the street children interviewed in Kamwangi said that their parents are well and that they left home after rows, domestic violence and poverty.
"For the last two years now, Kamwangi has been a home for the urchins. Parents should not allow their children to move to unknown places in the name of poverty, home ideological differences, and other disputes. It’s time the government takes action against such parents," he said.
Gakuya pointed out that they were concerned since some of the street children have graduated from being pickpockets to hard core criminals.
The number of street urchins in Kamwangi town keeps on escalating daily and some of them have segregated areas which they claim to be their territory.