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I talked to a co-worker who is originally from Kenya. She told me to check out news about kidnappings from her country. What I found is horrible! Children, mainly girls, are being kidnapped, with ransoms being high until negotiations for the child to be let free are underway. Then most kidnappers lower the ransom price. These are inexperienced criminals who think kidnapping is an easy way to earn money. What trauma are these children undergoing while in the hands of strangers? Are they returned unharmed?

There are also parents who give huge amounts of money for their children to be sent to the United Kingdom to have a better way of life. What they don’t know is these children are used for prostitution or cheap labor. Girls are especially wanted as they are considered to be good cooks and housekeepers, but even boys are taken. Lured by false promises of  their children being better off, parents think nothing of paying these “fees” to send their children away.

There are over 140,000 homeless children roaming cities in Kenya, many of them having no identification since they were never registered to have been born. These children are the most vulnerable to being kidnapped and sent abroad to be used basically as “slaves”.  Some of the homeless children have resorted to prostitution to have money for food. Child sex tourism is very high in Kenya. All of this has to be stopped, but it will take a lot of deliberation from Unicef to get countries to stop this practise.