In our last epistle, we promised to tackle a matter which is closer to our hearts this week – STREET KIDS!
For those of you who are fond of posting comments, for the sake of it, without bothering to dissect, chew and digest the contents contained therein, we’d implore you to think twice…..this is a delicate and emotive issue.
The police in Lusaka have arrested 47 junkies in Kamwala South….then what next? Are they going to send them to jail? Of course, not! What charges are they likely to be slapped with? Most likely ‘shishita’ (idle standing). Before long, they’d have gone back to their vomit in our communities!
But who are these junkies and where do they come from?
Junkies do not just pop up from the blues in our localities like mushrooms! They come from dysfunctional or broken homes and, of course the streets!
When children arrive on our streets in their droves and earn themselves the nomenclature, STREET KIDS….they mainly eke a living doing odd jobs and asking for alms from the Good Samaritans; and when we refuse to give them anything, they resort to eating from the rubbish bins.
Have you ever bothered to investigate why they’re always ‘glued’ to those small bottles before condemning them?
There are mainly two reasons that make them eventually succumb to the temptation of genkem: 1. Like every human being, they are obviously ashamed to find themselves living a life of shame on the streets. For them to muster some ‘Dutch courage’ or indeed escape from the hell-hole they find themselves in, they seek solace in genkem 2. Most of us can imagine the pain of enduring cold nights in the open air on a hard floor. Genkem is the ‘blanket’ that keeps them warm at night and enable them insulated from the mosquitoes.
Once the street kids transition into adolescence, they obviously become ashamed to continue life on the streets.
What happens next?
They start retreating back to their communities, mainly seeking shelter in the uncompleted shelters. In the fullness of time, they team up with their peers who are equally running away from home due to abuse at the hands of cruel relatives or lack of basic needs. Henceforth, they become like OWLS. During the day, they’ll go into hibernation……mainly keeping themselves busy consuming copious amounts of highly potent alcoholic beverages and smoking marijuana.
By the time night replaces the day, they literally take over the alleys and the streets, lying in wait for their prey. Those kids can be quite something else; if anyone makes a mistake of coming into close proximity with them, they’ll charge on you like hungry wild dogs and dispossess you of all your earthly possessions – phones, money, wrist watches, clothes and shoes! And if you dare pretend to be Rambo and try to fight back….oh boy, oh boy, you’d have booked yourself a ward at the University Teaching Hospital or space at Chingwere cemetery!
For those of you who may not be in the loop; for several years, we had been calling upon successive governments to consider calling for a National Indaba on Street Kids so as to bring all stakeholders on board (the Church, traditionalists, NGOs, political players, corporate world and the donor community) to thoroughly interrogate the problem and identify possible solutions! Alas all our pleas landed on deaf ears!
However, immediately the UNPD formed government and we repeated our calls; government wasted no time acquiescing to our request. It actually had to take us to endure a punishing 365KM marathon walk from Kitwe to Lusaka for us to be heard.
The Ministry of Community Development & Social Welfare finally organised a symposium at the Mulungushi Conference Centre and all who mattered attended. As usual, speeches were made, plenary sessions were held and resolutions were made. What happened up to the resolutions is a matter of guess work as the plight of street kids remains the same!
As we conclude, we would like to appeal to the New Dawn Administration, particularly the responsible ministry to revisit the plight of street kids. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel; the resolutions are already sitting in one of the offces gathering dust.
As for the junkies, this requires a radical approach! Can we take this matter to parliament so that we can come up with the necessary legislative framework which will compel all the junkies to be rounded up and whisked away to the State farms under the auspices of ZNS for them to get ‘cleaned’ as they utilise their energy helping improve the national food security by growing winter maize, beans, onions and raising goats for export to Congo DR and the Arab world, respectively! Why should we always rely on Copper which is a diminishing asset to generate foreign exchange? Don’t even allow the donor community to lecture us about human rights; a good number of our people in the shanties are getting killed and injured by the junkies! Donald Trump has already set the tone by ejecting unwanted people from the land of opportunities!
Until next time. Shalom!
Prince Bill M Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst
The problem does exist but it does not need an indaba. We elected a government to find solutions to such, the reason we pay them salaries every month with fat allowances. Why should we waste more money on holding an indaba when you yourself has proposed rounding them up for national service. Just advise your government to start working, time is ticking
Junkies were present in pf era.Did you advise them to start working? Who is government? Its you and me because we are the ones who elected them.So this problem is for all Zambians.
No wonder they say we have a poor reading culture. Who is talking about having an indaba?
We scroll to the bottom, see your by-line and dont read your articles baba. We know the article is just noise
No Swiss knife, we elected people to work. And that does not mean we are not doing anything as Zambians, they are a lot of Zambians helping indirectly, let government help directly. And those semantics of saying we are all government are not sustainable, there are people paid to do certain things and they should not abdicate their responsibilities.
Is there a law that compels parents/guardians to ensure their children/wards go to school?
If we round up junkies, they should take lead us to the homes where they come from so we can see why they are let loose.
If reasons given are not satisfactory, we may just met out some form of punishment to their parents or guardians, as the case may be, for their failure to keep the behavior of their children in check.
When you are in opposition don’t encourage lawlessness just because you want a vote. All incoming governments while in opposition have been encouraging street vending and street beggars. While in opposition try to study what causes all these which have now elevated to junkies.
Stop bearing children if you cannot fend for them…you don’t produce children and then pass the buck…boma can only do so much but you abuser in the home…defiler…cruel parent wake up and smell the coffee…solution zambia is huge but focus has been along the line of rail and lusaka…people steal money they leave their lubuto, kabushi or maploto and build in the suburbs even host zebras forgetting were they hail from….so let us find land and create a resettlement city here we shall build all infrastructure,,,but the task will be to reskill the street kids so they can fend for themselves under supervision…from this city will come our gates, musk and the lot…yes a whole new city grown by the children…
Please use the tax we pay to look after the street kids and not flying around campaigning before time.
Guys, you are doing very very badly. Start focusing on real issues. Listen to Sesheke UPND, and stop playing politics here with your tuma arguments. Tell people charged with responsibility and paid for that same responsibility to sit up. I repeat you are doing very very badly. Get on any mini bus on any route in Zambia and go and get the feedback. Free advice from me.