Charcoal Kids of Kakamega

It's early morning, 7am and Kakamega is alive with activity. Hawkers, street vendors, newspaper agents selling the latest account of scandal and corruption. The market is just across the street and the women have been setting up their stalls since 5am. Bananas, mangos, papaya, tomatoes, potatoes and host of vegetables will be sold today. They are all there, including those pleading with you that their matatu (17 passenger Nissan van) is the absolute finest…after all, it does say "Glory Ride" on the back window. Pick-pickies whisk people away to wherever for 50 shillings a ride. What a scene…absolutely crazy.

As a "muzungu" I am highly conspicuous. That in itself presents a host of potential problems. Although not in danger, I know I will hear a tale of woe and the need for cash. Gilbert Kiptoo is out finding a cab for us. We have planned a visit to his "shamba" near Eldoret. A shopkeeper invites me to sit on a bench inside his store.

First two come in, then more. All girls between the ages of 6 to 13, they carry 50 pound sacks of charcoal on their heads. With straight backs and load perfectly balanced they walk barefoot with such ease. Noticing their blank expressions and torn dresses, I thought how tragic and totally unacceptable. These are just kids…and what happened to children's rights?

In all about a dozen girls walked by me, receiving a plastic bucket from the shopkeeper. These were to measure the amount of charcoal sold. No words exchanged, this routine happens daily. Even the shopkeeper gets a cut from the labours of the "Charcoal Kids of Kakamega".

Charcoal is a huge industry in Kenya, an alternative to just burning wood. It is cleaner and more efficient. The problem is it exacerbates the deforestation happening everywhere. An estimated 700,000 people make a meagre living this way.

Ingredients are charcoal dust and biomass feedstock, water and a binding agent. For 10 shillings (12 cents Cdn) these girls sell a customer a day's worth of charcoal. Ingredients cost 8 cents so for all that work a profit of 2 shillings is made.

I could not take a photo, it was too much…just the charcoal (Google).

Such hard work with so little return. These girls suffer in silence. They will not go to school today, likely not ever. As I watched the "charcoal girls" walk away, I wondered what my life would have been like had I been born in this part of the world. Kenya can break your heart several times a day.