| dc.description.abstract | The study on child abuse was carried out in Nairobi
between 1989-1992 to determine the magnitude of the problem (child
abuse).
The increased rate of press reports on incidents of child-abuse,
sometimes leading to the death of the children involved prompted me
to carry out the research.
The objectives of, the study were to investigate the
nature and extent of child abuse in Kenya in general and Nairobi in
particular, to find out whether there is a relationship between
gender and child abuse, to find out the type of families that make
children more vulnerable to abuse, to find out the kind of parents
who are more likely to abuse their children, to find out the risk
factors in the child.
The theoretical rationale of this study was that parts of
the family; that is, the father, mother and children, have roles
and functions which they play to maintain the family as a system.
The success or failure of any of these parts in performing their
roles effectively may render children more vulnerable to abuse.
A total of sixty five abused children and seventy three
parents of the abused children above were interviewed.
Thus sample involved, eight cases of sexually abused children,
fourteen cases of physically abused children, twenty cases of
neglected children, twenty three cases of abandoned children, and
seventy three parents of the abused children above.
All the cases were drawn form those dealt with at the
provincial office of the Children's Department in Nairobi.
Systematic sampling technique was used to select the sample of
respondents and a questionnaire and observation were used in the
data collection. Basic statistics such as the mean, mode and
variance among others have been used to analyse the data.
The most significant finding of this study is that child
abandonment accounts for the highest percentage of abused children
in Nai robi (thirty five percent). Thirty one percent of the
children were neglected, twenty two percent were physically abused
and twelve percent were sexually abused, suggesting that child
abuse is on the increase in Nairobi .
In conclusion, this study found that the risk factors in
the family included low levels of income (57 %) and large number of
siblings (65 %) among others.
The significant factors relating to parents included single
parenthood (80 %), drinking of alcohol (53 %), the level of
education (70 %), and physical and/or mental status (10 %).
The risk factors in the child were found to be illegitimacy
(14 %), the sex of the child (10 %), and the child's physical
and/or mental status (9 %).
The study made several recommendations. These include
among others further research on child abuse using a larger sample
to establish the nature and extent of child abuse in Kenya. The
study also recommends for an establishment of detection and
protection programmes, community education and mobilization,
general family support, treatment programmes, professional
training, national health policies, day care centres and stern
judicial measures as ways of combating child abuse | en |
