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E-mailThese are the kids at their home, far left is the girl who had to leave school and take care of her brother and sisters, she is holding one of her small siblings in her arms.
Today i visited this home in Kabula Division in Bungoma District, a friend of mine who had been told of the suffering of these kids told me to accompany him so that we could get the actual picture and meet the victims of parental neglect, just as we were arriving at this home, the mother of these children who was around the compound took off and hid.
You can see this young boys foot with jiggers.
Iam talking about the home of four children who are attacked by jiggers, these children are living with the condition right under the eyes of their parents,their mother and father have deliberately left their children to suffer with this and even one of the members of the family (a child) died some time back due to the jiggers.
When we were going through their home we realized that the eldest of the Kids had even left school (she attends school in a nearby primary school called Bukhuma primary school) to come home and take care of her ailing siblings, we also realized that these parents are not poor, they are well of and have the capacity of supporting their children medical wise and even education wise, it is so unfortunate that the local community has been allowing this to go on, the two parents are said to be jointly visiting drinking joints and are always drunk not to care about their children.
These hand looks like that of an old man, but this is a young kid’s hand not even anywhere near 8years of age. They have jiggers as you can see
For these children, life is hell, the care taker of the other Kids has to go school as the parents are somewhere busy drinking and not caring how their children will survive without them. This is so unfair for this kid.
While we were back in Bungoma town while I was writing this story, it happened to get the attention of a UNICEF official, He asked us to take him to that place so that he can assess the situation, (I hope when the time comes and we go there with Him he will have to help using the legal mandate of UNICEF to arrest the situation).
Who is going to fight for these children who are facing death right before the eyes of their parents with a neighborhood that doesn’t care?
If you have read this story and you are around Kenya or even abroad and you happen to be connected to any department of state that fights for children rights or human rights or any ego that fights for the same, please make them aware of this, it might help at the end of the day because we need to have collective responsibility.
RSS 
Just how are we executing our ”collective responsibility” here? Are these children going to be better off with us exchanging tons of empathy here and patting each other on the back for the sad graphics?
This is child abuse/neglect for which you are a witness but are not stating whether you have brought it to the attention of local law enforcement/administrative offices. Do you intend to do that or are you content to await the convenience of the UNICEF official?
How about setting up a fund for the kids? Or at least initiating an online petition, although this too would only be symbolic?
Will you initiate some useful action on behalf of the kids or wait and hope for someone else to it? One could accuse you of exploiting the distress of these children just to glow with the feel-good effect of ”well done” commendations.
Remember the episode of the photojournalist and the starving Ethiopian kid? These are not awards winning matters anymore.
I just wished some people were not cynical in everything they do
Praising Duncan (or anyone else) is a good thing, though I fail to see how that alone amounts to ”making a difference”.
...And I wonder how you are able to gauge ”everything they do”. Omni-prescience perhaps?
Sincerely Harun,your words leave alot to be desired,when i wrote that post i concluded with this line,”please make them aware of this, it might help at the end of the day because we need to have collective responsibility. ”
i was asking the rest to help me reach out,this doesn’t mean i had not done anything to that! before we left that village we went to the area chief and asked him if he was aware of it and we informed him what the situation was like and we asked him to try and find the parents of these kids and question why they were neglecting their kids.
We also reported this to the local media with an intention of getting an audience with the media of course and the general public,iam sure it was later put on the nation newspaper,and this would make other stakeholders aware and it would boost the effort since there are other levels where we can’t reach but someone else would do that only if he had information which i choose to give.
Something else is that before we left that place we talked with neighbours and asked them to help the children while they would and also check the activities of their parents as they inform the administration from time to time.
I personally think this was unfair from you my good friend”Just how are we executing our ”collective responsibility” here? Are these children going to be better off with us exchanging tons of empathy here and patting each other on the back for the sad graphics?”
Now, as for my ”words leave a lot to be desired”, I can fill it in for you if you could be more specific. However, I hope you realize that if the info you just put out was in the original article, my comments wouldn’t even have arisen. It would also have made redundant your question of ”Who is going to fight for these children who are facing death right before the eyes of their parents with a neighborhood that doesn’t care?”
My position is that the miserable plight of (especially) children should not be the subject of publicity stunts by mainstream media and the blogosphere. Especially not if we are in a position to alleviate their distress even without fanfare.
I note quite happily that you took some pro-active steps to help the kids and hope you’ll be making a follow-up/update.
Consider also getting in touch with Ahadi Kenya Trust (fronted by former Miss Kenya Cecilia Mwangi) who are leading a reportedly successful anti-jigger campaign in several other regions.
He is Back from the sick bay
