| dc.description.abstract | Kenya has a long Coast line with beautiful sandy beaches that are very attractive mostly
to tourists. In a bid to attract and retain more people who come, different types of
entertainment activities mainly directed to tourists are carried out. This has seen children
increasingly involved in acrobatics, singing, dancing and other activities like massaging
and sexual deeds considered as part of entertainment to the tourists.
The study examines the factors that drive children to become entertainers, their role as
child entertainers in the tourism industry and how this practice affects formal schooling
of these children in the Kenyan North coast. This was based on frequent observations that
child labour is rampant in the tourism industry along the Kenyan coast. The general
objective of the study was to unearth the underlying factors of child entertainment and its
impact on formal education. It therefore highlights various factors that lead to child
entertainment such as poverty, parental negligence, peer pressure and belief of talent
among child entertainers and the community at large. Theories of child labour such as
human capital accumulation and human capabilities theory were explored to establish the
relationship between the above factors and child entertainment in the tourism industry.
The research design was corellational so as to enable the researcher to study the
interrelations between variables, describe characteristics of the child entertainers and
make specific conclusions based on the themes and sub themes of the study. The study
relied on both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data was collected through
face to face interviews and focus group discussions at Mtwapa, one of the towns in Kilifi
v
district along the Kenyan North coast which is a well known hub of tourism activities.
The target population was child entertainers from which a sample of forty (40) which
constituted 50% of the target population was drawn. Questionnaires and focus group
discussion guides were employed to collect data. The questions asked in these data
collection tools were based on the objectives of the study and therefore gave a
guideline on the various themes and sub-themes such as child entertainers' bio-data
,household characteristics, working conditions ,causes and effects of child entertainment.
The data collected was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively.
The findings of the study established that poverty is a major factor that makes children
become entertainers though it may not be the exclusive factor causing the involvement of
children in entertainment activities in the tourism industry. In addition the study found
out that child entertainment affects formal schooling by encouraging absenteeism and
poor grades as it takes a lot of time which children would otherwise use for studying. The
child entertainers work under poor conditions which include sexual harassment, low pay,
and other environmental hazards which affect the children negatively in their present and
future lives.
Based on the study findings the following recommendations have been made: Awareness
campaigns should be undertaken to sensitize the community about the dangers of child
entertainment/labour. For effectiveness and sustainability of these campaigns, all
stakeholders i.e. the police, government officials, parents, children, NGO officials and
religious leaders should fully participate. The study further suggests that relevant
stakeholders should make school interesting and attractive to children so as to retain
children in school as most of them are pnmary school going children. This can be done
by starting projects which benefit even children from urban poor families such as school
feeding programmes as Mtwapa schools currently are not in the school feeding
programme agenda. This study is of great importance to policy makers and human
rights advocates as it will enable them to decide on possible interventions which can
be taken to support child entertainers or reduce child entertainment in the tourism
industry at the Kenyan North Coast. | en |
