Factors Influencing Street Children’s Resistance To Rehabilitation In Nakuru Town, Nakuru County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The phenomenon of street children in urban centres globally has been increasing at an alarming rate. However, the efforts to resolve it have failed partly due to lack of adequate knowledge by the concerned stakeholders on the strategies to employ because of the street children‟s way of life in the street. Children in the streets face many challenges as the life they lead is largely inhumane with unending abuse and suffering that affects their lives. Hence, it is important to understand the reasons why they resist rehabilitation and choose to continue with suffering in the streets. Limited studies have been done on the factors that make street children resist rehabilitation and choose to continue with hard life in the streets. The main objective of this study was to examine the factors that influence street children‟s resistance to rehabilitation in Nakuru Town. Specific objectives of the study were; to establish the social factors that make street children resist rehabilitation in Nakuru town, to find out the economic factors that make street children resist rehabilitation in Nakuru town and to determine the coping mechanisms of street children to hard life of the streets in Nakuru town. The study was informed by the social network and resilience theories. The target population of the study was street children living in Nakuru Town. The unit of analysis was the street child in Nakuru Town. The study applied multi-stage sampling techniques that comprised of purposive, stratification and snowballing in selecting the respondents. Data analysis used both qualitative and quantitative methods where analyzed data was presented in tables, pie charts and cross tabulation followed by interpretations and discussions in order to address the objectives and research questions. In addressing social factors that make street children resist rehabilitation, the study established that street children are organized in groupings called bases; this is a survival group system with formal structure of leadership. It enables them to have a sense of belonging, identity, and security. The study recommends that interventions targeting rehabilitation of street children should understand the social economic and coping mechanisms of street children to street life in order to apply appropriate intervention.