Effects of gender on socio-economic adaptation strategies to street life by street children in Kenya: Case of Eldoret town in Uasin Gishu County.

Abstract

The rising number of street children population has been an existing and growing phenomenon in Kenyan towns and is expected to grow given the harsh economic situations and poverty levels. The resultant impacts continue to destabilize social structures and the very survival of street children socially and economically. The study aimed to determine the effects of gender on the socio-economic adaptation of street children to street life in Kenya. The study objectives were; to determine the influence of gender on social adaptation strategies of street children to street life, to investigate the gender aspects enhancing economic adaptation strategies of street children to street life and to evaluate measures adopted by various players to alleviate gender-inclined adaptation strategies of street children to street life in Eldoret town in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population were the street children within Eldoret town (n=100), NGOs (n=3), DCSs (n=1), Psychologists (n=1) and Sociologists (n=1). The study adopted snowballing sampling for street children and purposive sampling for the KIIs. Structured questionnaires and KIIs checklists were used for the data collected. Data were analyzed using SPSS v26. The research established that females had stayed for a shorter period in the streets compared to their male counterparts. As for the gender-specific economic survival strategies, the study found out that the male street children engaged in more economic activities than their female counterparts hence making life more bearable. The different NGOs, County Governments and the Department of Children Services engaged in Counselling, offering financial support to start businesses, rehabilitation for those children under the influence of drugs, offering support to the street children's kids, offering vocational and basic education training, hosting some of the street children in children's homes to mitigate the street children problem. The study recommended that the various stakeholders such as NGOs and other organizations including churches among others should join forces to reduce the number of street children within urban centers streets through creating a one-stop shop for all the services at the rehabilitation centers and offering all the services through co-creation, co-planning and co-implementation.