Once considered to be the most politically secure society, the aftermath of a blamable election in Kenya has done more harm than just a fight between two ethnic groups; it has ignited the long hidden ethnic tensions, resulting in violence that has made hundreds of children homeless, orphan or separated from their parents. Children who otherwise stood a full chance to a bright and equal childhood compared to any child in the world, making their own country a prison with least hope for peace. The number of bright young eyes in Nairobi, that quiver at the sound of workers coming hoping for some news of their parents or loved ones. Red Cross estimates over 500 children separated from their parents in the chaos, and the figure could be much higher in a nation wide count. With thought of normalcy far as peace talks are concerned, show no respite, the only good news is that more than 300 children have already been successfully reunited with their parents, thanks to tremendous efforts put in by the social workers.

With more than a million people who have no where to go in their own country, seeking refuge in camps the children are the worst effected. Some are too young to even let the details out, for others the shock of separation has had its toll. Stories of children witnessing their own family members, neighbours getting killed in front of them, their schools, neighbourhoods being destroyed, queuing up for food and looking haplessly for their parents, all of this will have a lasting effect. They have disturbed sleep and can’t remember details. In the six weeks that Kenya has been at war, it has taken their childhood away, and it will have a lasting effect. It could result in a possible humanitarian disaster.

A data on the Unicef website has left me word less. If reading about the children in Kenya didn’t catch much of your attention, then this surely will shake your soul.
In nearly 50 countries, witnessing conflicts, more than 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict over the last decade. More than three times that number, at least 6 million children, have been permanently disabled or seriously injured. More than 1 million have been orphaned or separated from their families. Between 8,000 and 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines every year. An estimated 300,000 child soldiers - boys and girls under the age of 18 - are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide. Child soldiers are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks and to provide sexual services. Some are forcibly recruited or abducted, others are driven to join by poverty, abuse and discrimination, or to seek revenge for violence enacted against themselves and their families.

Garca Machel who worked on the UN study on children in war believes that a child is particularly susceptible to the rampages of war, she explains

The physical, sexual and emotional violence to which they [children] are exposed shatters their world. War undermines the very foundations of children’s lives, destroying their homes, splintering their communities and breaking down their trust in adults.

Quite much like Pablo Neruda, who has starkly said in his poem, I Explain A Few Things,

in the streets the blood of the children / ran simply, like the blood of children.

After all, even winning a war is as disastrous as losing one.

Via: MSNBC