No one’s sure how many street children live in Nairobi, but their numbers are increasing exponentially. By city council estimates there were roughly 60,000 four years ago; now social workers speak of 200,000–all between the ages of 1 and 18. Most are believed to be AIDS orphans or victims of Kenya’s unrelenting economic decline, cast out by parents no longer able to feed them. Once in the city, they survive on petty crime and odd jobs: they pick pockets, stalk and attack pedestrians, steal mobile phones, look after parked cars or run drugs. “You’ll find them in dumping sites,” says Rachel Awala, an administrator with Kenyan NGO Child-life. “You find them living like no human being should.”
George Kimani is less dramatic: “You don’t mind,” says the 10-year-old with a snort. George’s mother was still alive last time he checked, but his father died two years ago, leaving a family of seven without an income. George was ordered to go. He drifted toward the city center, attracted by the offices and restaurants, and eventually joined a gang of four in a larger group of 30. He says he helps people find open parking spots, earning an average of 50 shillings (65 cents) a day; 25 shillings he spends on a portion of fries, the other 25 on a bottle of glue. “Without glue you are cold, you are hungry, you think too much,” he says.
Last July, George nearly died from a respiratory infection he can’t identify; his ringleader, a boy in his teens, went to report him dead to the authorities. When he came back, George’s fever had broken. Now he has ringworm and bouts of malaria. What he hates most about his life is the police. Now and again, the kids are forced kicking and screaming onto pickups and dropped off at jails, none of which distinguish between minors and adults. After a couple of weeks, they are told to shower, wash their clothes and get out.
“This is a tragedy beyond human comprehension,” says the Rev. Angelo D’Agostino, a Jesuit priest who runs an orphanage for HIV-positive children outside Nairobi. “Never in the history of mankind have we had so many children running around unprotected.” He estimates that by the end of the decade, 2.5 million AIDS-infected Kenyans will have died, leaving behind millions of orphans–and time bombs: “They are criminals by age 10,” says Nasim Shah, a local flower-shop owner. “I don’t want to think what will happen when they are 18.”
