Child labour victim pleads to go home

For the past few weeks, 10-year old Jeanette Mukandayisenga has been wandering the streets of the leafy Nyarutarama suburb in Gasabo District beseeching passers-by to help her trace her way back to her parents.Mukandayisenga, who looks much younger than her actual age, says she was forced to drop out of school. Apparently, her aunt whom she had been living with in Huye asked her to accompany another woman to Kigali in January this year.The soft spoken girl narrates that she had come back from school one evening, when her aunt told her to prepare to travel to Kigali where she would stay.“I thought Kigali was near and that I would still be able to visit the children at home and also continue with school. I want to go back to my village and stay with my mother,” she says. Nyarutarama residents, who are familiar with the girl’s predicament, say the girl works as a baby-sitter besides handling other house chores.The law prohibits children below 16 years to engage in economic activities.Residents say the girl’s employer, Mukundiriki, who is unrelated to the child, nowadays keeps her indoors after learning that the girl had already notified her neighbours and passers-by of her dilemma.They claim Mukundiriki reports to work every morning leaving Mukandayisenga to look after her two-year old child. She works as a guard with a local security firm.When The New Times sought her comments, Mukundiriki denied the allegations, saying the girl only takes care of her child while she goes to look for odd jobs to sustain their livelihoods.She insists the little girl’s parents had abandoned her saying she was staying with an aunt.Mukundiriki acknowledges that she indeed got the little girl from an aunt, who allegedly had been unable to meet her education requirements as well as other basic needs due to poverty.She also acknowledges that the kid had on several occasions attempted to escape as her desire is to go back to her home.The young girl says she sometimes attempts to flee because of beatings meted out on her by her host.When we visited the home, it was a contrast as the bubbly but rather stubborn two-year old baby the girl takes care of looked far much healthier than her imposed under-age nanny.According to neighbours, the frequent beatings meted out on the young girl sometimes compel her to seek refuge from them.“The girl told us that she is beaten everyday; she said she is seven years old and was just starting her primary school education early this year before she was brought to Kigali to work as a babysitter and handle house chores,” one of the neighbours, Ingabire, whose other name has been withheld, narrated.The neighbour further recalls an incident when the child fled and sought refuge at her house for fear of being reprimanded after she had unintentionally left their house open while fetching water.“I don’t give her any arduous tasks such as cooking or washing but only to look after the baby,” she says, adding that she punishes her just like any other child who commits a wrong.“I brought her with me as her relatives had no means to support her. Rumours about me harassing the girl emanate from neighbours who don’t wish me well. I have no money to take her back home right now, but I am planning to do so in July to avoid all these problems.” Apparently, several area residents have on numerous occasions attempted to come to the girl’s rescue and that local leaders are aware of her plight. However, the local leaders claimed they were unaware of the case.“We are not aware of such an inhuman case taking place in our area,” said Philomene Uwineza, the Executive Secretary of Nyarutarama Cell.“Whoever claims to have informed us about the issue is a liar and is only trying to run away from a problem she created. We are going to investigate and see how we can help this girl, if that is the case,” Uwineza said told The New Times. She says the Nyarutarama Cell hosts a total of over 2, 000 children, adding that some do not go to school, and instead engage in domestic work while others are involved in commercial sex activities.“We have, on several occasions, had to force parents to take their children to school, though some seem to have turned a deaf ear,” she said. The 2008 Rwanda National Child Labour Survey (RNCLS-2008) estimates that 11.2 percent (324, 659) of children aged between five and 17 years, engaged in economic activities in the country, with the majority of them [15 percent] in the Eastern Province. Besides domestic work, most of the children are engaged in mining, quarrying and agricultural activities, especially tea and sugar production. According to the survey, about 83.6 percent of children engaged in commercial activities, are domestic workers.About 31, 000 child labourers became ill and injured in the line of duty with half of these children engaged in full time employment.Article 8 of the Law Regulating Labour in Rwanda (13/2009) prohibits forced labour while Article 167 sets down prison sentences of three to five years’.The issue of children involved in exploitative and hazardous activities remains a big issue, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where it has increased by 9 per cent to 58.2 million in 2008, up from 49.3 million in 2004, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).