KENYA
WHO WILL PROTECT THE ORPHANS?
The HIV/AIDS scourge is taking a phenomenal toll on low and middle income couples that leave behind several orphans who, in the absence of dependable relatives, are left in destitution, facing the challenge of no education, lack of basic necessities and no inheritance to their parents' property.
By Hellen Ndubi
AWJ/1,354 Words
After the death of their mother, Michael, Anne and Mary were lucky to have their father to turn to and life was more or less the same because their father tried to provide for them as much as possible. Things only changed when their father decided to remarry. But this was just a lull before a storm. Three years down the road, their father also passed away and they were left on their own. The wife whom their father married after the death of their mother ran away just before their father's death. Despite both parents having been formally employed, the three orphans are now facing a life of destitution. The person their father nominated as the next of kin has not been able to process their father's benefits and they have now to rely on the goodwill of relatives for all their basic needs. The three have joined the increasing number of destitute children in the world. In Kenya today, as in other parts of Africa, the HIV/AIDS scourge is aggravating the death of couples. The disease is killing many couples through cross-infection. Along the shores of Lake Victoria, the trend of death among couples has been renamed 'lor dhot ilu bang'a' meaning "close the door and follow me". At least 2.2 million people, about 28-30 % of Kenya's current population, are estimated to be living with the HIV/AIDS virus while between 600 and 700 people are estimated to die daily from the disease. Middle class hardest hit The infection trend of HIV/AIDS in Kenya is most telling. Apart from affecting the very poor because of lack of access to retroviral drugs, the disease is slowly eating into the pool of middle class members of the society with young families. The traditional set up ensured that orphans were well taken care of by the community. Relatives collectively contributed towards the upkeep of those left behind. But the capitalist economy and the rising number of deaths have changed all that. Several reasons have been advanced on why the middle class has the greatest number of orphans. The only difference between these orphans and those of the very poor is that, whereas they once enjoyed high standards of living when their parents were alive, death robbed them of all that. With death, came the change in their general lifestyle, residence and even in the schools they once attended. For the orphans, their challenge lies on accessing and making use of their inheritance to continue their education and maintain the good living standards their late parents had accorded them. The Children's Act that was enacted by parliament and took effect from the 1st of April 2002 obligated the government to make available free basic education to every child. But as it is now, Universal and Free (Primary) Education still remains a pipe dream. Education costly The guardian to Michael and his sisters was asked to pay various levies to the new city school he was transferring them before the children got admission. They were asked to pay about Ksh.10,000 (US$128.2) for development fund, Ksh.2, 500 (US$32) per child for furniture, admission fee of Ksh 500 (US$6.4) per child and school fees of Ksh.1, 800 (US$23) for each child for all the three terms in a year, all at once. One would have thought that the school authorities were trying to make it more difficult for the children to join school. The entire amount, totaling about US$ 189.6, was to be paid for before admission. This is a substantial amount in a country where nearly 56% of the population is classified as extremely poor - living on less than a dollar per day. Though free and compulsory education is enshrined in the Children's Act, which is in line with the international conventions, other issues make it almost impossible to implement it and attain the set goals. Before a child is admitted to a school, there are several things that the child must fulfill. Amongst them is development fund, of which the Parents and Teachers Association (PTAs) - responsible for maintaining schools - set the amount parents pay to carry out these activities. To implement the prescribed Structural Adjustment Programmes and other economic reform programmes, the government removed some subsidies on essential services and introduced cost sharing in the education and health sectors. The move is a disadvantage to poor communities. The cost-sharing arrangements in the provision of basic social services and the declining economic support services have placed a heavy burden on the poor. Burdensome cost sharing Parents are now required to provide the physical infrastructure conducive to learning. Additionally, the burden of meeting the cost of many school requirements such as text books for every subject, school uniforms, the hiring of additional teachers by PTAs and other frequent and unplanned levies, is placed on parents and guardians. Parents, who cannot afford the high cost of education, compel their children to leave school to work and supplement their household budget. Orphaned children are in many cases prone to dropping out of school since there is nobody to fend for them. Among the Kenyan communities, the idea of preparing for one's death is a relatively new phenomenon. In the past, death was inevitable but the society had social support systems that took care of orphans. With the increasing number of deaths as a result of HIV/Aids, plus road accidents, the number of orphans has exceeded the social support system. The Kenyan Property Rights, Inheritance laws and Administration of Estates of the Law of Succession Act (Cap.160) provides for adequate protection of the property of the deceased, by among other things ensuring that the said property is lawfully transferred to those that are legally entitled to it. Though the Act provides for the net estate of a couple to go to the surviving child or children absolutely or equally, that is not normally the case. A number of cultural issues have defied such an arrangement.
Children's property rights often violated In cases where the children have not yet come of age (i.e. over 18 years), the pursuance of the estate of their parents is left to the close relatives who at times may or may not act to the best interest of the child or children. Because of greed and grinding poverty, some have even been known to connive with administration officials to disinherit the children and even the surviving spouses. Since the writing of wills is still a relatively new phenomenon in Kenya, children have been known to lead very miserable lives after the death of their parents as a result of not knowing how to take up the benefits from their parents. Left with aging grandparents who are unable to take care of them, these children having had better lives when their parents were alive are running off to the urban areas to seek for a livelihood. It is thought that these children are also contributing to the rise in the number of street children, now estimated to be over 250,000 in the country with Nairobi alone estimated to have more than 70,000. This may just change if Action Aid (Kenya) succeeds in its current campaign. The organisation has embarked on a campaign to sensitise communities to venture into writing wills for the sake of ensuring the education and well being of their children after their demise. This has taken the form of capacity building among the communities and making them aware of the need to prepare well for the lives of their children. The organisation has started its work in the district of Rachuonyo in Nyanza province along the shores of lake Victoria where the HIV/AIDS is most rampant. This approach may just ensure that though death is still with us, many families in future will be able to make life more bearable and manageable to the children they leave behind especially in cases where there is property which the children can manage.
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