CURRENT STATISTICS AND STUDIES ON THE VULNERABLE IN KENYA
Challenges faced by the vulnerable families may include ignorance retrogressive cultural practices, gender based violence such as:
Female genital mutilation which is still practiced in several parts of Kenya. The procedure itself is both painful and humiliating, as well and unsanitary and extremely dangerous. Young girls subjected to it frequently suffer from hemorrhages and various infections; and fatalities are all too common. Survivors of this barbaric practice often suffer permanent physical disability and lifelong psychological damage.
Child marriages this practice remains widespread within certain ethnic groups. More than 25% of Kenyan girls are married before the age of 18. These young girls are in no position to understand what marriage entails, and invariably face a future of unrelenting hardship and incessant toil. The offspring of such unions begin life at a severe disadvantage.
Other gender based violence which includes spouse bartering, sexual abuse such as rape, and problems of property ownership.
Preventable diseases Such as Polio, rickets, cataract infections among others have rendered tender age children to live with disabilities for the rest of their lives. Sometimes due to lack of special training for them, they become dependent in their adulthood.
The intensity of the challenges lead many to search for alternative means of survival basically in towns and urban centers. Hence, the vulnerable on the street are called by other names based on their livelihood and addictive behaviors:
Street Children - the Wiki Loves Africa estimated that there are 250,000 street children in Kenya and over 60,000 in the capital Nairobi.
Commercial Sex Workers - are estimated to be 200,000 according to a 2012 survey by the National AIDS and sexually transmitted infections Control Programme (NASCOP).
Prisoners - As at April 2015, Institute for Criminal policy Research estimated prisoners, including pre-trial detainees and remand prisoners to be 51,154. SOFTKENYA post of 2015 indicated that Kenya has 92 correctional institutions — 89 prisons, two borstals and one youth corrective training Centre.
Destitute families/ beggars - majority of them are people living with disabilities and not able to work for their living
Alcoholics and drug abusers - according to Inter Press Service 2015, Kenya is still facing its greatest threat from alcohol abuse despite legislative attempts to curb drinking. Calamities associated with excessive intoxication – dementia, seizures, liver disease and early death – have done little to deter users. Not even confirmed reports by the Ministry of Health and government agencies such as the National Authority for Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) that illicit brewers have been turning to lethal embalming fluid used in mortuaries have cut the rate of abuse. According to an “Alcohol Situation Analysis” for 2012 by the regional office of IOGT-NTO, a global temperance movement: “out of the number of people interviewed, 63 percent had used alcohol and 30 percent had more than five alcoholic beverages per sitting, which is heavy episodic use.
Teenagers between 14-17 years of age are having two alcoholic beverages per sitting.” Alcoholics wanting to end their addictions have little recourse, Support for Addictions Prevention and Treatment in Africa (SAPTA). Reported that Kenya has over 70 in-patient treatment centers, only three are government-run. The rest are privately owned. While is it is good that we have this many treatment centers, most are concentrated around the Nairobi area. We do not have many centers outside Nairobi. The average Kenyan with an alcohol or drug problem cannot afford treatment either