Child labour blamed for poor exam results, dropout rates in Taita Taveta

Taveta Sub County Director of Education Aaron Karani has decried rising cases of child labour that have contributed to the high school dropout rate in the sub-county.

Karani said most parents are sending children to the market on Wednesdays to sell farm produce instead of ensuring that they are in school.

He said the practice was to blame for the rising dropout rate and poor performance by schools from Taveta sub-county in the national examinations.

“On Wednesdays, the market is full of children, some in school uniforms, selling farm produce. Some told me that they are sent by their parents,” he said.

He said relevant education stakeholders are making a concerted effort to enforce the Children’s Act 2016 and achieve a 100 per cent transition rate.

Addressing teachers, parents, and students at Kiwalwa Mixed Secondary School in the Kimorigo location, the education officer challenged parents to embrace education as the cornerstone of socio-economic development.

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Recently, Internal Security Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the high dropout rate among school-going children remains a major challenge facing the Coast.

The CS noted that the vice is not only a recipe for chaos but also causing insecurity challenges and social instability in the region.

The alarm comes as human rights activists complained that child trafficking for labour has become prevalent in the region.

Human rights activists recently rescued a standard seven Mwakingali Primary School pupil in Voi town employed in Tanzania.

The human rights activists noted human trafficking victims found in Taveta include young girls who are duped by truck drivers into sexual relationships and moved across international borders for sexual exploitation.

Haji Mwakio, the chairman of the Taita-Taveta Rights Watch, said they acted on a tip-off and traced the victim working as a farmhand at Marerani in Arusha, Tanzania.

He said that the victim left his home in Voi town when schools closed and did not return when they reopened, prompting a search for him.

Mwakio said with the help of immigration officials from both sides, they managed to rescue the boy engaging in child labour. “The boy is now back at school under the care of the children’s department,” he revealed.

However, it remains unclear whether officials have arrested the suspects in connection with the incident.

Further reports indicate that Tanzanian children also come to Kenya to work on the farms and also to help carry farm produce to Taveta market. In addition,

Additionally, older girls from vulnerable households in Taveta often get recruited by local trafficking networks to work as housemaids in Taveta town, Voi and even Mombasa city. Human trafficking agents also recruited many young girls from Taveta and sent them to the Arabian Gulf to work as housemaids, said our sources.

Mwakio claimed smugglers took the victim to Tanzania through the Taveta-Kitobo-Madarasani point to Moshi.

“The border is vast and unmanned and therefore easily enables traffickers to ferry victims of trafficking through the thicket,” claimed the human rights activist.

Mwakio noted that human trafficking is a result of vulnerability within the household in terms of poverty and unemployment, especially among the youth.

Sources in the security sector said the young Tanzanian boys and girls’ vulnerability within their households and nation further explains their movement to Kenya for exploitative employment.