Street families set to benefit from vocational training

Nakuru, Monday, April 24, 2023

K.N.A By Esther Mwangi

Nakuru County Government is in the process of rolling out a programme that will empower street families to help them engage in lawful means of earning livelihood. 

Social Services Director Muriithi Kiogora said through public-private partnerships, the county was planning to have the families trained in artisan courses including masonry, welding, solar installing, motorcycle and phone repairs, hair and beauty therapy among other courses. 

The Director stated that Governor Susan Kihika’s administration was envisioning a vocational training delivery model that will provide alternative livelihoods to both male and female individuals residing on streets to encourage entrepreneurship to break poverty and reduce their involvement in criminal activities. 

“Our aim is to equip this segment of the society with gainful artisan courses as a way of keeping them engaged so that they keep off from criminal activities and drug and substance abuse. Some of the women on the streets are victims of teenage pregnancies who were never given a chance to attend schools,” explained Kiogora. 

Speaking at the CPC centre in Bondeni area of Nakuru during a meeting for partner institutions involved in rescuing and rehabilitating street families, the Director however said the County Government’s main aim was to link back the street children with their families instead of putting them in children homes adding that they were currently sensitizing parents on the need to embrace the family morals of being responsible. 

Kiogora who was accompanied by County Director for Youth Affairs Josphat Kimemia indicated that rescue, reintegration and re-socialization of the street families into the community care would solve the problem which occurs with those placed in the homes. 

While reiterating the county government's support and goodwill in ensuring the wellbeing of children and families that are connected to street life, Kiogora disclosed plans to relocate all the street dwellers which he assured would be done in a procedural, humane manner, and within the confines of the law. 

He added that after the relocation, there would be a rehabilitation exercise that will include enrolling street children into schools, equipping older ones with informal and formal skills, and offering entrepreneurship training to the street dwellers above 18 years, before reintegrating them to the society. 

The Director indicated that to succeed in addressing the increasing number of street families, all stakeholders including state and non-state actors needed to first address the root causes and singled out poverty, rural-urban migration, broken societal and domestic violence as some of the main causes.

Kimemia said the County Government was supporting various initiatives aimed at equipping youth with computing skills that would connect them to potential employers and other digital work opportunities to help them earn a decent living. 

He added that the county was planning to empower more than 50,000 young people annually to access meaningful work opportunities from the online ecosystem with 70 per cent of the target being young women. 

 “Some of the highest earners in Kenya are those who have adapted to technology earning from online. You just need the internet and a laptop. The future is digital technology but we must empower our youth to tap into it,” Kimemia said. 

The Director observed that on average, those working online earned about Sh21,000 monthly for entry jobs for companies in the US and UK, especially in transcription noting that up-take of online work expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The first national census of street families in the country that was held in 2018 by the State Department for Social Protection in partnership with Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that Nakuru had 2,005 persons living on the streets.

Courtesy K.N.A