Violence Against Children at Home

Abstract

Within the family, a ‘private’ sphere, children run the risk of being abused and neglected. Most families in Kenya, and the circumstances in which they live, are marked by extreme poverty. A web of poverty-related factors drains the quality of life, with direct repercussions on the ‘home life’ of the child. The scale of intra-family physical violence, psychological abuse, emotional neglect and sexual violence has been documented. Children have learned not to speak up and even to morally accept punishment, but the emotional and physical pain is tangible. Physical and emotional neglect is very often unintentional, related to deprivation in general, but also quite often intentional (wilfully withholding rights from children). Unintentional neglect, due to poverty, is something with children could deal with: love and care is what keeps them going. Intentional neglect drains their self-esteem.