Worry as Cases of Child Labor in Bomet Increases

By Raisa Okwaras,

The rise in cases of child labor in Bomet county continues to raise concerns to the general public. This came in following the interview of Bomet County Commissioner (CC) Beverly Opwora on Saturday, July 2, 2022.

The interview brought to light the fact that some parents in the county have been engaging their school-going children in income-generating activities like tea harvesting and boda boda business. However, such is wrongful since these children work at the expense of their education.

With this, the CC stated that they have alerted government officials to conduct a crackdown to get hold of all culprits to combat child labor.

“It has come to our attention that some parents are engaging school-going children in manual jobs, which is against the law of this country. As the county security team, we are going to patrol the entire county, and any parent found culpable will face the full force of the law,” she said.

This came in only a few days after the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Bomet Branch highlighted how child labor has a negative impact on education in the county.

Hence, the CC asked parents to shun child labor as it is backward. Besides, child labor goes against the Children Act as well as the Education Act of Kenya. In addition, she stated that the Government of Kenya invests huge amounts to funding free primary and day school education in line with enabling every Kenyan child to access education.

“Any parent doing this is not only disregarding the two Acts but also depriving the affected children of their right to education,” added Bomet CC Beverly Opwora.

The CC also warned parents against allowing their school-going children to do Boda boda business. If they fail to take heed of the warning, the law will catch up with them.

So far, the Chiefs in Bomet’s Konoin Sub-county have rescued children who were submitted to tea farming and harvesting and have since been enrolled back in school.

Source: The Kenya Times.