VZCZCXYZ0001
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNR #1456/01 1680426
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 160426Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6076
RUEHC/DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS NAIROBI 001456 
 
DEPT FOR AF/E, AF/EPS, AND DRL/ILCSR MARK MITTELHAUSER 
DEPT FOR G/TIP FOR STEVE STEINER 
DEPT ALSO PASS TO DOL/ILAB FOR RACHEL RIGBY AND MICHAL MURPHY 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI KE
SUBJECT: KENYA INFORMATION ON FORCED LABOR AND CHILD LABOR IN THE 
PRODUCTION OF GOODS FOR MANDATORY CONGRESSIONAL REPORTING 
REQUIREMENTS 
 
REF: STATE 43120 
 
¶1. Summary: Forced labor is insignificant in Kenya in the production 
of manufactured goods.  There is virtually no child labor in the 
formal manufacturing sector.  The number of child workers in Kenya 
dropped by over 47% in five years, from 1.9 million in 1999 to 1 
million in December 2005.  Over 80% of child labor is in the 
agriculture and fishing sectors.  Less than 3% of working children 
were in industrial sectors, and less than 15% were in wage 
employment.  Worst forms of child labor in Kenya include coffee, 
tea, sugar, horticulture, fishing, herding, mining and rock 
breaking, construction, and craftsman production of household items. 
 End summary. 
 
Background 
---------- 
¶2. Rumors persist of Asian men being exploited as supervisors or 
junior management by company owners who hire them from South Asia, 
hold their passports, and pay less than originally promised, but 
there has been no substantiation, and such trafficking victims would 
appear able to free themselves after saving sufficient funds. 
Forced labor is insignificant in Kenya in the production of goods, 
but child labor and trafficking in persons remain problems. 
However, most trafficking for forced labor of children and adults in 
Kenya is for domestic services and commercial sex work, leaving 
agriculture as the only productive sector with a significant 
problem.  Although there have been recent allegations that debt 
bondage is used to exploit Africans from neighboring countries 
working in Kenya, the magnitude is not yet determined, nor the 
sectors involved. 
 
¶3. The main causes of child labor and exploitation in Kenya are 
poverty, HIV/AIDS orphans, unemployment, broken families, drug and 
alcohol abuse, and the spending power of Kenya's many tourists.  The 
2006 National Household Survey by the Kenya National Bureau of 
Statistics Child Labour Analytical Report of June 2006 found the 
number of children engaged in child labor has declined since January 
1999 from 1.9 million to about 1 million in December 2005.  Of the 1 
million child workers, 49% said they were attending school.  Of 
Kenya's estimated population of 35.5 million people in December 
2005, 12.85 million (about 35%) were children aged 5-17 years, with 
10.3 million living in the rural areas.  About 11.07 million 
children were attending school, while 1.78 million (13.9%) were not 
attending school, a large drop from the 3.5 million (32.1%) found 
out of school in the 1999 survey.  The introduction of tuition-free 
primary education in 2003 is the main cause of the improvement, but 
extensive programs by the GOK, ILO/IPEC (partly funded by USDOL), 
the private sector, and NGOs also persuaded parents and employers 
that children should attend school, not work.  On June 2, 2008, 
President Kibaki claimed the tuition-free secondary education policy 
raised secondary school enrollment from 1 million students last year 
to 1.3 million this year, a 30% increase.  President Kibaki also 
announced the government was offering free tuition at all registered 
youth polytechnics countrywide to provide vocational training. 
These initiatives should further reduce the pool of youth vulnerable 
to child labor, trafficking and exploitation. 
 
¶4. About 90% of working children were found in the rural areas. 
Rift Valley province had the largest population of working children 
at about 336,000, followed by Eastern province with about 193,000. 
Both Rift Valley and Central Province had 10.2% of surveyed children 
working.  Children age 15-17 represented 47.8% of working child, 
followed by the age 10-14 group at 36.4%, and age 5-9 at 15.8%.  A 
total of 816,521 children (81.3%) were found working in commercial 
and subsistence agriculture as skilled and unskilled farm, fishery, 
wildlife and related occupations.  In his paper "Agricultural 
Policies and the Elimination of Child Labour in Kenya" for the June 
7, 2007 ILO/IPEC policy forum, University of Nairobi fellow John M. 
Njoka stated "Child labour in subsistence agriculture is both 
pervasive and hard to see and tackle." The survey found 29,166 
children (2.8% of total) working in industrial sectors including 
quarrying, construction, garment production, and machinery 
operators. 
 
¶5.  Like in the previous survey, the 2005-06 survey's figure of 1 
million working children may be an understatement of the real 
situation.  Of the 1.78 million children not attending school, 1.26 
million said they not working, or did not state their working 
status.  It is likely a significant share of the 218,000 (17.3%) age 
10-14 children and the 307,346 (24.4%) aged 15-17 were actually 
engaged in child work or child labor, including herding in the arid 
and semi-arid areas where schools are often too distant for children 
of migratory pastoralists. 
 
Worst Forms of Child Labor in Kenya 
----------------------------------- 
¶6. The Ministry of Labor has proposed the following activities as 
worst forms of child labor and notes where they may be occurring: 
 
- MINING AND STONE CRUSHING: Western, Nyanza, Central, Rift Valley, 
and Coast provinces. 
 
- SAND HARVESTING FROM RIVERS AND SHALLOW PITS: Whole country 
 
- MIRAA (KHAT) PICKING: Eastern province 
 
- THE HERDING OF ANIMALS: Rift valley: Eastern and North Eastern 
provinces 
 
- BRICK MAKING: Eastern, Nyanza, Central, Western provinces 
 
- WORK IN INDUSTRIAL UNDERTAKINGS, INCLUDING WAREHOUSES: Whole 
country 
 
- CARPET/ BASKET WEAVING: Sisal growing areas (mainly Coast 
province) 
 
- BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION, INCLUDING ROADS AND BRIDGES AND OTHER 
CIVIL WORKS, DOCKS AND QUAYSIDE: Whole country 
 
- TANNERY: No location specified 
 
- DEEP LAKE AND SEA FISHING: No location specified, but presumably 
Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean 
 
- GLASS FACTORY: No location specified 
 
- MATCHES AND FIREWORKS: No location specified 
 
- AGRICULTURE: Whole country.  Hazards include: 
Working with machinery and sharp tools, chemicals, animal kicks and 
bites, picking crops and loading or ferrying heavy awkward loads of 
coffee and other farm produce to processing factories or weighing 
centers, respiratory exposure to coffee dust, snake and insect 
bites, diseases such as anthrax, musculo-skeletal injuries from 
repetitive and forceful movements, and lifting and carrying heavy or 
awkward loads, and hearing loss or impairment due to noisy 
machinery. 
 
¶7. The analysis by the Statistics Bureau calculates that 14,330 
children were engaged in worst forms of child labor in the following 
risky production sectors: mining, quarrying, stone cutting and 
related workers, construction, machinery mechanics, and brewers, 
distillers, and related workers.  However, while the Ministry of 
Labour listed agriculture and fishing as worst forms of child labor, 
the survey did not include the over 800,000 children working in 
those sectors because it could not determine which children were 
working in hazardous conditions.  Including risky service sectors, 
the study found a total of only 19,542 children engaged in worst 
forms of child labor in Kenya, a gross understatement of the 
problem. 
 
Efforts to Eradicate Child Labor in Kenya 1992-2008 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
¶8. The GOK began working with the ILO/IPEC in 1992 on programs to 
reduce child labor based on the realisation that child labor is a 
development challenge.  The existence of large numbers of child 
workers threatened achievement of the Millennium Development Goals 
(MDGs), especially on education, poverty reduction and youth 
employment, and hampered economic growth by perpetuating the 
existence of unskilled labour force.  Many government officials, 
scholars and development partners devoted significant efforts 
towards addressing the child labour problem. Over 100 NGOs are 
currently implementing projects rescuing thousands of children.  The 
establishment of tuition-free primary education in 2003 brought many 
children under age 14 back into the school system.  The ILO and IOM 
are training and working with the Children's Department, and 
Ministries of Labor, Youth, Education, and Agriculture on child 
labor and trafficking policies.  In the last 15 years, the age group 
most affected by child labor has changed from 5-13 year olds to 
14-17 year olds. 
 
¶9. The Government of Kenya's National Development Plan for 2002-2008 
recognizes child labor as a problem and calls for an evaluation of 
the impact of child labor on the individual and the country, as well 
as its implications on the quality of the future labor force. In 
February 2006, the government renewed the 3-year mandate for the 
National Steering Committee on the Elimination of Child Labor. An 
Inter-Ministerial Coordination Committee on Child Labor chaired by 
the Vice President is responsible for setting general policy.  The 
Steering Committee worked with stakeholders to draft a national 
child labor policy in 2006.  Although the draft policy was never 
forwarded to the Cabinet for confirmation, it guided the policies of 
GOK agencies, donors and NGOs.  The 2001 Children's Act, the 2006 
Sexual Offences Act, and the 2007 Employment Act provide a basic 
policy framework. 
 
¶10. Restrictions by importing countries on the use of child labor 
and Fair Trade programs offering certification of ethical production 
led growers of coffee, tea, and other sectors to end child labor 
from their plantations and then their satellite growers to protect 
their export markets.  At the conclusion of its first plantation 
project with ILO/IPEC in April 2006, the Federation of Kenyan 
Employers (FKE) auditors saw significant improvements in sugar, 
coffee, sisal and tea plantations' implementation of the FKE Code of 
Practice to prevent child labor.  FKE suggested to sugar plantations 
they extend their child labor prevention program to their contract 
cane cutters.  FKE suggested plantations and contractors provide or 
support primary schools and day-care facilities to provide 
alternatives, and pay employees to provide peer education for 
orphans and vocational training for post-primary children, including 
domestics.  FKE also encouraged education and empowerment for adult 
women to help them keep their children in school.  In early 2006, 
FKE published a best practices guide for employer interventions to 
combat child labor in all sectors of the economy.  FKE started the 
second phase of its child labor project with ILO/IPEC in May 2006, 
focusing on the tourism, sugar, sisal, and coffee sectors.  In 
November 2006, FKE sponsored an ILO/IPEC regional workshop for 
employers from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Swaziland, Tanzania, 
Uganda, and Zambia to share experiences, lessons learned and best 
practices in combating child labor in the agricultural sector.  The 
Rural Employers Association (REA) links all agricultural employers 
and uses its quarterly meetings to seek out and review information 
on child labor in all sectors.  Since the introduction of tuition 
free primary education in 2003, the REA has noted a continuous 
reduction in child labor, even among herders. 
 
¶11. Under the ILO/IPEC program, the Central Organization of Trade 
Unions of Kenya (COTU) fought child labor in partnership with the 
government and FKE by educating workers how child labor undermines 
their employment, wages, and bargaining power and encourages 
rural-to-urban trafficking of children.  Unions trained their shop 
stewards to detect children working in hazardous work, established 
child labor committees to keep children out of the workplace, and 
incorporated child labor prevention guidelines in collective 
bargaining agreements.  COTU's member unions play an active role in 
ILO/IPEC District and Local Child Labor Committees.  They organized 
parents into groups for income generating activities to replace 
childrens' income and keep them in school. 
 
Sectors and Locations for Worst Forms of Child Labor 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶12. Coffee 
Type of exploitation: Child picking of coffee berries to contribute 
to family income.  Children receive lower and/or more irregular pay 
than adults, perform hard work, and work long hours in dangerous 
conditions. 
 
Sources of information: ILO/IPEC, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta 
University, Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK), the 
Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE), and press. 
 
Narrative and Sources: See para 6 for risks associated with 
agriculture.  According to ILO/IPEC, University of Nairobi 
researchers, and the Federation of Kenyan Employers in 2008, child 
labor has been largely eradicated in the plantations over the last 
15 years, and especially in the last five years, through a 
combination of free primary education and anti-child labor programs 
under which plantation management discouraged parents from bringing 
children to the fields, and provided or supported schools or day 
care alternatives, sometimes with feeding programs.  However, 
ILO/IPEC, University of Nairobi researchers, and the Association of 
Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) believe children continue to pick 
coffee in Thika, Kiambu, Nyeri and Kirinyaga Districts in Central 
province during peak seasons on small and family farms to provide 
family income. 
 
ILO/IPEC Commercial Agriculture Program Officer Wangui Irimu stated 
at a June 7, 2007 meeting that child labor in commercial agriculture 
is often invisible, as parents evade company policies by sneaking 
their children into the plantation to pick, claiming the harvest as 
their own, and collecting the payment for the childrens' work. In 
his paper "Agricultural Policies and the Elimination of Child Labour 
in Kenya" for the June 7, 2007 ILO/IPEC policy forum, University of 
Nairobi fellow John M. Njoka stated, "The coffee sub-sector is a 
major employer of children."  The bulk of coffee comes from 
smallholders, and "Most child labour in this sector is invisible." 
 
Incidence of child labor: Undetermined, but believed to have shrunk 
over the last five years to thousands.  An August 5, 2007 article in 
the Standard newspaper quotes Central Provincial Commissioner Jasper 
Rugut as stating there are 70,000 school-going children engaged in 
child labor in the province, most of whom are working in coffee 
farms and quarries in Thika, Murang'a, Maragua and Nyeri Districts. 
 
Efforts to combat use of children in the production of goods: see 
para 9. 
 
¶13. Tea 
Type of exploitation: Child picking to contribute to family income. 
Children receive lower and/or more irregular pay than adults, 
perform hard work, and work long hours in dangerous conditions. 
 
Sources of information: ILO, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta 
University, Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK), the 
Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE), COTU, and press. 
 
Narrative and sources: See para 6 for risks associated with 
agriculture.  According to the ILO, University of Nairobi 
researchers, and the Federation of Kenyan Employers in 2008, child 
labor has been largely eradicated in the plantations over the last 
15 years, and especially in the last five years, through a 
combination of free primary education and anti-child labor programs 
under which plantation management discouraged parents from bringing 
children to the fields, and provided or supported schools or day 
care alternatives, sometimes with feeding programs.  However, family 
farms and small producers still use their children as labor. 
 
The 2007 "Baseline Survey On Children In Commercial Sex In Kenya's 
Four Towns Of Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret & Nyeri," report submitted to 
ILO/IPEC found that children 10 years and above picked tea 
year-round in the Nyeri area in Central Province. 
 
In his paper "Agricultural Policies and the Elimination of Child 
Labour in Kenya" for the June 7, 2007 ILO/IPEC policy forum, 
University of Nairobi fellow John M. Njoka stated "The participation 
of children in commercial agriculture could be highly invisible due 
to the labour enforcement mechanisms adopted following years of 
activism and work with the plantation owners."  At the same event, 
ILO/IPEC Commercial Agriculture Program Officer Wangui Irimu stated 
that parents try to evade company policies and increase family 
income by sneaking their children into the plantation to pick, 
claiming the harvest as their own, and collecting the payment for 
the childrens' work. In the discussion, some participants claimed 
that some local managers may occasionally tolerate the practice. 
 
Incidence: Unknown, but not believed to be significant. 
 
Efforts to combat use of children in the production of goods: see 
para 9.  FKE reports that large producers, millers and marketers 
hold workshops for small producers to raise awareness about the need 
to prevent child labor. 
 
¶14. Fish 
Type of exploitation: Fishermen in Nyanza Province on Lake Victoria 
hire boys to work on their boats.  Indian Ocean fishermen in Coast 
Province may use their children as workers.  Children receive lower 
and/or more irregular pay than adults, perform hard work, and work 
long hours in dangerous conditions.  These children or their 
families are unable to access tuition-free primary education because 
they cannot afford uniforms, books, or other schooling costs. 
 
Narrative and Sources: According to the ILO/IPEC, World Vision, 
CRADLE, the African Network for the Prevention and Protection 
Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), the KNBS Child Labour 
Analytical Report, and University of Nairobi researchers in 2008, 
poverty in Nyanza Province drives children, especially HIV/AIDS 
orphans, to work in the fishing industry, either on the boats on the 
lake, or unloading and marketing the catch on the beaches.  The 
risks include attacks by carnivorous and poisonous fish; 
decompression illness; rupture of ear drums; death or injury from 
hooks, nets, and ropes; gastro-intestinal and other diseases. 
 
The 2007 "Baseline Survey On Children In Commercial Sex In Kenya's 
Four Towns Of Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret & Nyeri," report submitted to 
ILO/IPEC found that children worked at Dunga and Usoma beaches near 
Kisumu. 
 
According to an April 10, 2006 article in the Standard, Bondo 
District Commissioner (DC) David Jakaiti received complaints from 
local leaders that over 100 school-age children were engage in 
fishing and other manual jobs on the beaches of Usigu Division and 
ordered chiefs to round up the children and ensure they were taken 
back to school.  Usigu East Councilor Jwenge Okwaro said the 
children were working on Oele, Ugambe and Nyaudenge beaches for 
three months, and called for prosecution of the fishermen exploiting 
children to make more money. 
 
 
Incidence: In the hundreds or low thousands.  The KNBS Child Labour 
Analytical Report found 637 boys age 10-14 worked in the fishery 
sector.  It is unknown how many fishery workers are among the 
270,000 subsistence agriculture and fisheries workers.  However, the 
Lake Victoria fisheries are declining due to other factors.  The use 
of children among Indian Ocean fishermen is thought to be minimal 
and mainly among families using their own children. 
 
Efforts to combat: See para 9.  Both ILO/IPEC and World Vision 
implemented USDoL funded child labor programs in the area.  Working 
with District officials and other NGOs through the Area Advisory 
Councils, they organized District and local child labor committees 
to raise awareness of the problem and rescue children from labor, 
including the fishing sector of Lake Victoria. 
 
15: Ballast, sand, and gold 
Type of exploitation: Hiring children to load or unload sand. 
Hiring children or using family members to break rocks into gravel. 
Children receive lower and/or more irregular pay than adults, 
perform hard work, and work long hours in dangerous conditions. 
 
Sources and Narrative: ILO, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta 
University, Solidarity Center, Central Organization of Trade 
Unions-Kenya (COTU), Africa Now, the Federation of Kenyan Employers 
(FKE), The Nation, The Standard, the June 2008 Child Labour 
Analytical Report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). 
 Sand is mined for the construction industry, and unskilled youth 
are hired as laborers.  Children ages 5-17 are hired or used by 
their families to break rocks with hammers into gravel in small 
quarries for ballast for road or other construction without any 
protective gear.  The hazards include exposure to harmful dusts such 
as silica, gas, fumes and extreme humidity and temperature levels; 
awkward working positions (bending, kneeling, lying); respiratory 
diseases that which could manifest as silicosis, pulmonary fibrosis, 
asbestosis, emphysema; musculo-skeletal disorders; fractures and 
death from falls/cave-ins. 
 
The 2007 "Baseline Survey On Children In Commercial Sex In Kenya's 
Four Towns Of Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret & Nyeri," report submitted to 
ILO/IPEC found that children collected sand at Usoma near Kisumu in 
Nyanza Province, and sand and stones from quarries around Nyeri, in 
Central Province. 
 
An August 31, 2007 article in the Nation indicated that child labor 
was a problem in the sector when it reported the National 
Environment Management Authority (NEMA) would require all sand 
harvesters under the Mining Bill to follow regulations including a 
minimum age of 18 for sand loaders.  The Employment Act of 2007 
overtook the Mining bill by setting a minimum age of 18 for 
hazardous work, including sand mining.  An August 5, 2007 article in 
the Standard newspaper quotes Central Provincial Commissioner Jasper 
Rugut as stating there are 70,000 school-going children engaged in 
child labor in the province, most of whom are working in coffee 
farms and quarries in Thika, Murang'a, Maragua and Nyeri Districts. 
ILO/IPEC implemented a project between 1994 and 2000 on the 
elimination of child labor in soapstone in Kissii District, Nyanza 
province and believed child labor had been ended in the mines. 
However, an August 27, 2006 article in the Standard reported that 
Parliamentary investigators found children mining soapstone at a 
mine in Tabaka, Gucha District, next to Kisii.  A March 30, 2006 
article in the Standard reported that 10 underage prospectors had 
recently drowned in artisanal gold mines in Kakamega District in 
Western Province.  It was also believed that adults offered payment 
for gold nuggets from abandoned mines, enticing children to risk 
their lives. 
 
Incidence: The KNBS Report found 5,474 children working in the 
mining and quarrying sectors ages 10-17 all over the country. 
Efforts to combat: See para 9. 
 
¶16. Horticulture: vegetables and flowers 
Type of exploitation: child labor on family farms and children hired 
by small producers.  Children receive lower and/or more irregular 
pay than adults, perform hard work, and work long hours in dangerous 
conditions. 
 
Sources and narrative: ILO, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta 
University, Flower Council of Kenya, Central Organization of Trade 
Unions-Kenya (COTU), Africa Now, the Federation of Kenyan Employers 
(FKE), The Nation, The Standard.  See para 6 for risks associated 
with agriculture.  In Central Province, including Kirinyaga 
District, families and small producers are believed to use child 
labor to produce beans and other vegetables for export.  Flower 
plantations in Rift Valley and Central Provinces do not use child 
labor, but some of the small satellite producers from whom they buy 
product are believed to sometimes use their children as workers.  An 
August 5, 2007 article in the Standard claimed that child rights 
officials believed horticultural farmers in parts of Kieni West and 
East Divisions in Nyeri District have a record of recruiting young 
boys. 
 
Incidence: unknown 
Efforts to combat: See para 9.  The Flower Council of Kenya and the 
Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) have also 
worked with the EU, customers and audit organizations to prevent 
child labor not only in the commercial plantations, but also in 
their small satellite producers to retain their access to European 
markets. 
 
¶17. Sugar 
Type of exploitation: contractors hiring and transporting children 
to work at harvest time. Children receive lower and/or more 
irregular pay than adults, perform hard work, and work long hours in 
dangerous conditions. 
 
Sources and Narrative: ILO/IPEC 
University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Solidarity Center, 
Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya (COTU), Africa Now, and 
the Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE).  For the hazards of 
working in agriculture, see para 6.  Sugar is focused mainly in 
Nyanza and Western Provinces, produced by both plantations and small 
growers.  Labor demand is seasonal, peaking at planting and 
harvesting.  There have been reports that contractors have hired and 
transported truckloads of children to work at these seasons. 
ILO/IPEC Commercial Agriculture Program Officer Wangui Irimu stated 
at a June 7, 2007 meeting that child labor in commercial agriculture 
is often invisible, as parents evade company policies by sneaking 
their children into the plantation to pick, claiming the harvest as 
their own, and collecting the payment for the childrens' work. 
 
Incidence: unknown. 
Efforts to combat: Sugar plantations participated in the FKE project 
with ILO/IPEC to end child labor (para 6) in their own operations, 
and among their satellite growers. 
 
¶18. Construction of buildings, roads, bridges, etc. 
Type of exploitation: trafficking or hiring child laborers who need 
income.  Children receive lower and/or more irregular pay than 
adults, perform hard work, and work long hours in dangerous 
conditions. 
 
Sources and Narrative: Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK), 
Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya (COTU), ANPPCAN the June 
2008 Child Labour Analytical Report by the Kenya National Bureau of 
Statistics (KNBS).  ANPPCAN's 2006 study on child trafficking in the 
Africa region found that 14 of the 69 trafficking victims it 
interviewed said they were employed in construction, security or 
transport.  AMWIK's "Child Breadwinners" included one boy who 
related that he had worked at construction sites in Nairobi from age 
13-17 doing menial tasks including digging trenches, pushing 
wheelbarrows, and mixing cement and concrete.  Hazards in the 
construction sector include: Being struck by falling objects; 
stepping on sharp objects; falling from heights; exposure to dust, 
heat and noise; exposure to high voltage or live electrical 
equipment; heavy lifting, work over water, with ladders, and in 
confined spaces; and, structural collapse. 
 
Incidence: The KNBS Report found over 4,000 boys, mostly ages 15-17, 
working in the construction sector. 
Efforts to combat: See para 6. 
 
¶19. Meat 
Type of exploitation: Families using their children as herders. 
 
Sources and Narrative: It is widely reported that pastoralist 
peoples in Kenya's arid and semi-arid regions in Rift valley, 
Eastern and North Eastern Provinces use their sons to herd the 
livestock their families depend on for survival.  Many families are 
nomadic, making accessing education very difficult, even when 
desired.  The pastoralists sell animals to slaughterhouses for cash 
income.  The hazard of herding include: injuries from animal kicks 
and snake bites; pricks from wild thorns trees; and, wounds or death 
from raiders and rustlers. 
 
Incidence: The KBS report does not break out herding from other 
agricultural occupations.  In Northeastern Province, only 50% of the 
500,000 children attend school, the lowest rate in Kenya.  Rift 
Valley Province is the second lowest school attendance rate, at 85%, 
which represents 500,000 children out of school or unstated. 
Eastern Province has another 241,000 children out of school or 
unstated.  It is likely that a significant share of the 1 million 
children not in school in these provinces are engaged in herding. 
Efforts to combat: See para 6. 
 
 
¶20. Written Sources: 
 
Dynamics of Child Labour in Kenya: Key Issues, Challenges and 
Prospects 
John M. Njoka and Paul K. Kamau 
Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi 
5/10/06 
 
CHILD LABOUR POLICY REVIEW: KENYA COUNTRY REPORT 
Daniel N Sifuna 
Department of Educational Foundations, Kenyatta University 
9/1/06 
 
ANPPCAN Report on the Conference on Child Trafficking 
Nairobi 
8/17/06 
 
Combating Child Labour in Commercial Agriculture in Kenya 
Wangui Irimu, Project Coordinator 
ILO/IPEC 
July 2005 
 
Child Labour in Micro and Small Enterprises; Policy Brief 
Geoffrey R. Njeru 
Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi 
March 2007 
 
Education and the Mitigation of Child Labour in Kenya; Policy Brief 
John Mugo 
Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi 
March 2007 
 
"Baseline Survey On Children In Commercial Sex In Kenya's Four Towns 
Of Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret & Nyeri," report submitted to ILO/IPEC 
by Sam Owuor Ogola and Patricia Jane Ochieng', 2007. 
 
SLUTZ