Evangelist Vincent Obonyo of the Dominion Chapel Church when he spoke to street children in Kisumu. (Photo: Roberto Muyela)

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Parents have been warned against neglecting their parenting roles in a bid to cut on the ballooning numbers of street children in Kisumu City.

Evangelist Vincent Obonyo of the Dominion Chapel Church said that there was an increasing number of street children aged below 18 years who needed to be cushioned from the environment they were currently living in.

Obonyo made these remarks on Tuesday in Kisumu where he convened street families to commemorate the Boxing day fete.

A section of the children, Obonyo disclosed had fled their homes for the city after perpetual feuds in their families.

Some of them, Obonyo further pointed out had escaped their home due to poverty or after committing offences and resorted for the Lakeside city hoping to find a better life.

“It is very disturbing that some parents are enjoying during this festive season alone in their home while some of their children they have left for the dead are living in deplorable conditions are languishing in this town,” said Obonyo.

Obonyo who runs a program that seeks to transforming the lives of street children through counseling and helping them to identify their talents said that he has plans to have some of the youngest children reunited with their families.

Duncan Onyango, an Officer from  Kisumu Progressive Youth Organization lamented that among those in the streets were young children of between age eleven and fifteen adding that some of them had become depended on drug and substance abuse.

Onyango said that drugs and especially sniffing of cobblers’ glue was weighing down on the health of the children besides also revealing that it pegged the young boys to living criminal lives.

He nonetheless pledged to be of great help to the street families where he pointed out he will help in seeing a section of them enroll for the Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project (KYEOP) for them to be trained in various skills.

According to Agape Street Children Rehabilitation Center Director, Chris Page, there are about 200 children who are still in the streets of Kisumu who are yet to be rescued.

Page who is also the Chairman of the Kisumu Street Children Rehabilitation Consortium disclosed that Agape Children’s Home shelters about 360 children who were rescued  from the cruel streets.