Part I : Indaba on Street Kids a Must

By Prince Bill M. Kaping’a Political/Social Analyst

You’ll often see them draped in scruffy clothing, usually spotting unkempt hair. They tend to sleep in drainages…tunnels if you like. Many at times…… they’ve to go days on end on empty stomachs. And yet, when they chance a rare opportunity to lay their hands on what they may refer to as food, they usually have to help themselves from rubbish bins……nay, dumpsites!

Given the circumstances, they’re forced to inhale copious amounts of glue or genkem, as they prefer to call it, to hide their shame or indeed keep warm at night. But who are they?

They’re commonly known as STREET KIDS!

By standard definition, a street child is basically a poor or homeless child who lives on the streets of a city, town or village. Make no mistake, there are two types of street kids: children on the streets and children of the streets.

Children on the streets: These may have a home and even one or two surviving parents. Most likely, their parents can’t afford to put bread and butter on the table for them. As a result of this, they are compelled or even encouraged to take a long walk to the city to ask for alms from some good Samaritans or undertake odd jobs such as hauling goods on their backs and/or cleaning cars. Once they manage to pocket one or two coins, you’ll see them proudly walking back home in high spirits rest assured that they won’t go to bed hungry that night.

Children of the streets: Having lost both parents, mainly due to HIV/AIDS or……. probably ran away from the custody of their relatives due to mental and physical abuse, they’ve cut off ties with their relatives. Obviously feeling neglected by society, they consider themselves as having nowhere else to run to, hence a grueling life on the streets begins. Quite understandably, children of the streets tend to sniff copious amounts of glue to keep warm at night; they actually euphemistically refer to glue as a blanket! Sadly, there’s no law in the country incriminating the use of genkem or ifinyelele.

History of street kids in Zambia

Our country started experiencing a surge in the influx of street kids early 1990s when the Frederick Chiluba led Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) dramatically dislodged the post-independence ruling party, United National Independence Party (UNIP) from power in a scintillating and gripping contest that would leave our founding father Dr. Kenneth D. Kaunda dumbfounded!

Following mounting pressure from the Bretton Woods institutions, former trade unionist turned politician Dr. Chiluba would embark on an ambitious structural adjustment programme (SAP) to try and resuscitate the ailing economy. This would see a number of state-owned enterprises and the mines switch to private hands whilst those with a less impressive balance sheet would simply fold up.

As predicted by skeptics and naysayers; things would somehow go haywire in a matter of time! A good number of people in the city would lose employment in the process, dispatching many of them to the grave prematurely, due to depression. Robbed of sole bread winners in the family, many households in urban set ups would be struck with severe hunger and poverty. In the fullness of time, children from such dwellings would start flocking to the central business districts for survival…and these children would come to be known as street kids.

As a stroke of misfortune would have it though, a new pandemic would equally be wreaking havoc in our communities. As scientists and researchers raced against time to find a cure, many more people of productive age would succumb to HIV/AIDS leaving behind scores of children as double or single orphans.

Faced with uncertainty as to whence their next meal would come from, a second wave of street kids would hit the streets! Hundreds of these fatherless kids would storm the streets and position themselves in strategic places hoping some good Samaritans would feel pity and splurge loose coins on them.

In what may be perceived as ambivalence or simply lack of a master plan to unravel the conundrum, the Chiluba administration would watch from the terraces as the army of street kids swelled-up in the cities!

A flicker of hope would only be ignited once Chiluba reluctantly passes on the baton to Levy Mwanawasa after a botched third term attempt. Mwanawasa would immediately introduce a robust street kids’ rehabilitation programme under the auspices of the Zambia National Service (ZNS). But lo and behold……he would pass on before the initiative could even take root and start bearing fruits.

When Mwanawasa’s vice president Rupiah Bwezani Banda finally takes over as President of course after fending-off stiff competition from the opposition, many street kids’ practitioners would be confident that the new administration would continue on the same trajectory and probably inject some new reforms, especially the manner ZNS officers tended to treat street kids.

Why do we say so?

Street kids often cited abuse and ill-treatment at the hands of tough talking military instructors who treated them just like any other recruit! For example, street kids always complained of being flogged-out of bed at 5 AM to go jogging, being screamed at incessantly for no apparent reason and severely punished on flimsy grounds etc.

Given the above, our organization resolved to write the Republican President, proposing that government should consider calling for a national indaba on street kids.

It was envisaged that the indaba would come up with a coherent policy on street kids to help figure-out lasting solutions to the problem of street kids once and for all. But to our utter shock and dismay, we would get an absolutely outlandish response from the Ministry of Social Welfare and Development at the time.

“Thank you very much for your proposal for government to call for a national indaba on street kids. If your organization is in a position to sponsor the same, we would be more than happy to collaborate with you in this venture,” read the letter in part.

Honestly speaking…..how can a reasonable and responsible government expect a simple local NGO to sponsor an event of such magnitude as a national indaba?

To date, the plight of street kids remains the same, if not worse!

Not so long ago, the previous Edgar Lungu regime was rattled when young people took to social media to complain about rampant corruption in government and lack of job opportunities in the country.

Truth be told, street kids actually pose a far greater danger to national security than any other grouping. What we are sitting on is a volcano! As street kids continue enduring pain and suffering on the streets while society looks the other way, they are gradually getting embittered and tempered, systematically. And as age catches up with them, they’d surely start organizing themselves into gangs……this is when the volcano shall surely erupt! And when this happens, they’re going to reign terror never witnessed before in the history of this nation as they go on rampage unleashing a myriad of spine-chilling crimes.

Let’s take a few examples into perspective. On the Copperbelt province for instance, we had or still have remnants of violent gangs such as the Tokotas, Mbwambwambwas, Sons of the devil, Malinsos etc; where do such cliques emanate from? What about those individuals constantly harassing the traveling public at the intercity bus terminals in Lusaka; what does their conduct and character speak of? They totally have no culture or regard for anyone at all! The case is even worse for the so called Jerabos on the Copperbelt.

Would we rather fold our arms and wait for things to spiral out of control, irretrievably?

In part 2, we tackle the way forward.