Construction of Ruai Street Children?s Centre in Kenya neglected

Construction of Ruai Street Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Kenya which was meant to rid Nairobi of street families has been neglected.

The project was in discussion in 2015 when then Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero announced that his administration was putting up a street children’s rehabilitation centre in Ruai, Kasarani Sub-county. The then governors’s administration had approved US $1.5m for the project in 2016.

Also Read:Uganda selects contractor for construction of 256 Bella Vista apartments

Ruai Street Children’s Rehabilitation Centre

In late 2017, the county leadership shifted from Dr Kidero to Mr Mike Sonko, who allocated a further US $14.5m in 2017 for mapping, rehabilitation and training of street families in the city. Four years later, the project has gone under waters

The centre would have featured a modern vocational and training centre to teach practical courses. A football pitch, basketball court and an indoor games arena were some of the planned recreational facilities. 40 acres was set aside for the development.

Upon completion the Ruai Street Children’s Rehabilitation Centre would accommodate 3,000 street families and offer pre-primary, primary and secondary education. This would have cost taxpayers US $1.9m

Evans Kidero said that psycho-social workers and other experts on hand would be assigned to support the families and children that may have challenges arising from their tough life on the streets.

The centre would have greatly come to the rescue as the consortium of street children estimated street families in the city increased to 60,000 by then. Previous efforts to rid the city of the families had flopped in spectacular fashion, often because of ineffective approaches. Street families would normally be arrested and locked up. Soon after release, they would return to the streets.