Interview With John Muiruri, Undugu Society Social Worker
Originally published in Executive magazine, January 1993
(Article)

By David Blumenkrantz

DB: What are your impressions of the street children you meet daily-- how do they see themselves, and how does society regard them?

JM: In regard to society's relation with the street children, it's becoming a bit interesting in that people want to give the children only money, and they're considered to be a nuisance, as opposed to what we expect of people, which is to be more concerned about the situation. Say for example, instead of giving the child a shilling, and just let him go away, the best thing an adult can do is to sit and talk with the child, and get to know the problem. The more you give a child a shilling, or two or ten, or buy him chips for that matter, it motivates him more to come to the street. That type of thing is keeping the children on the streets. That is why you're finding boys and girls in the streets, because they know that in the streets, certainly somebody will feel touched and instead of doing the right thing, they'll give them money. As you know, this money is used for buying gum (glue for sniffing), and other drugs.

The other thing is that still, adults in the community are the ones involved in the selling of glue and bhang to the children. So it's a big problem that requires the attention of people. People to reflect again-- people to know that they have a responsibility, that they are obliged to think a little more about the problem of the children.

The sniffing of glue, the abuse of drugs by these small children, has extended to the estates. Soon, you who are giving the children the money to buy the drugs, your child will also be involved in it because somehow it involves some fun, it's something new.

DB: Can you help to enlighten us on what the kids themselves must go through-- what is the psychology of street life?

JM: In my work at the reception center, and in the streets with the boys, I've come to learn that they are people who are living under extreme stress. When they abuse drugs for example, it is a matter of trying to forget all their problems. They don't like it. They don't like eating the food they get from the dustbins. They don't like when people look at them because they are fragile or almost naked. They don't like not going to school like any other children. They don't like people gazing at them as though they were special creatures.

DB: There's a general perception in the public that a lot of kids do in fact like it-- they prefer staying in the streets rather than in an impoverished home with 10 or 12 kids, and not enough to eat, or perhaps where their parents abused them, or in the remand homes. They prefer life on the street because they can be wild and free, living a carefree existence, in a way.

JM: Well there's the freedom bit of it, and the fact that one is not controlled. But the problems that they encounter are a big thing, you see, and they don't like it at all. They would like to be with their parents, but the problem is their parents cannot provide them with all the basic requirements. So they have to go out. Everybody in the neighborhood is going to school, so what do they do? They go out there because they don't have anything to do in the 12X10 room, where there are so many of them inside. Anytime you talk with them, they express the need to go back to school. They talk about taking up courses and training. They talk about staying in a loving environment. They talk about visiting their parents. And this is something we should all be concerned about. Because the big thing now is to work hard to reunite them with their families.

DB: You recently attended a conference on street children in Brazil. What was it all about, and what did you get out of it that you think you can apply to your work here?

JM: The conference was about street children and Aids. It was a world congress that brought together people working with street children. We were reflecting closely on the problem of street children and Aids. Sorry to note that this is another problem that is creeping to the street children. In Rio, there is a big, big problem with street children. I had a chance to visit some of the projects, and meet the children in the streets. It's a horrible case. Brazil is far worse than Nairobi, because unlike Nairobi, where after sometime there is still the chance that the children can meet their parents-- there is some uncertain relationship-- in Brazil, the children are living totally alone. And then the community, the people, are so wild against them-- they kill them, they shoot them, the street children are also violent.

DB: In the worst case scenario, not to cast you as a prophet of doom, is there any chance that Nairobi can degenerate to the kind of society they have in Brazil?

JM: This depends on what we do now. If we don't do anything, it could become the same thing. Because if these boys grow up in the street, and their frustration continues, they become the same. And once they become violent, people too will become violent against them. I'm not a prophet of doom-- it's just exactly like that. These children in Rio, they grow in the streets, graduate into adults, marry in the streets, give birth in the streets, and then you have children growing up in the streets who don't have anybody. We don't want that type of thing. And now is the time that we act. There is a lot we can do. We can take these children with us, put them with their families, help them through the churches, through the schools, through the families-- now, when the system is not broken, and people can take the children who are out there and assist them.