It’s around 7p.m on a Saturday evening and a ten-year old girl is moving from car to car on a busy Gisimenti road just behind the popular Ndoli Supermarket. 

She is begging for coins and often being ignored by shoppers and passers-by.

Clad in a sleeveless green dress and bathroom slippers, 10-year old Clarisse Iraguha then tugs at the shirt-sleeve of a man carrying shopping bags, asking for a coin before a police patrol car drives by.

She promptly ducks behind a delivery truck for cover.

This is a normal day for Iraguha who says in an interview that she was introduced to street life in July this year.

Her parents separated in 2018 when her alcoholic father abandoned them and moved to Eastern Province where he married another woman.

Since then, Iraguha explains that her mother, who is sickly and was mostly dependent on her husband’s small income, can hardly fend for her seven children.

Iraguha is the fifth child in the family.

Sitting across the street breastfeeding is a woman only identified as ‘Mama Cécile’ who Iraguha says is a family friend who helps her mother feed the family. Iraguha must remit every penny she gets from a well-wisher.

For the past two months, Iraguha, tags along when ‘Mama Cécile’ leaves home to stakeout a ‘spot of choice’ early in the morning.

‘Mama Cécile’ has trained Iraguha to mostly target women, who she says are more compassionate to ‘hungry children’.

In simple terms, ‘Mama Cécile’ is renting Iraguha’s childish innocence to appeal to the masses. In return, the little girl’s mother will get a commission.

Her task is simple. She must tell anyone who asks the truth. She and her family are hungry and they are depending on her.

After a day’s work, ‘Mama Cécile’ must then determine what per centage of the ‘earnings’ to give Iraguha’s mother for her child’s services.

"We start at about 9am and go home by 8pm. When I am lucky, I make between Rwf300 and Rfw1,500 a day but ‘Mama Cécile’ is the one who determines how much to give my mother,” she says.

This she says helps put food on the table and also buy herbal medicine that her mother has been using for months now for an unspecified chronical condition.

Uncertain future for an aspiring doctor

Iraguha, who is in P.4 says that although she hopes to be a doctor in future, she is uncertain about whether she will continue with her education when schools reopen.

"My other siblings run away from home. Only three of us have stayed to help our mother. I am lucky that I found Mama Cécile because she helps me feed our family but she also protects me when I am about to be apprehended,” she says.

‘Mama Cécile’ declined to have an interview.

But Iraguha is not alone. Paulin Tuyisenge rotates around the main entrance of Kimironko market and the nearby banking strip targeting those who have come to buy food and those from ATM booths.

The 11-year old talkative boy says that he was introduced to the streets early this year by his maternal aunt.

He says that although he goes to school, he sometimes leaves the classroom straight to the streets where he makes between Rfw400 and Rwf1000 in a day from begging.

Tuyisenge’s father was severely injured in a taxi motor accident last year leaving him incapable of fending for his family of three, he says.

According to him, his mother’s income doing laundry and housework in their neighbourhood is not enough to keep the family afloat.

"Yes, my parents are aware that I am here with my aunt. My mother doesn’t like it but she doesn’t have any other option. She splits the money in the evening because it’s easier for people to give me money than it is for my aunt,” he explains.

A worrying trend

The Director of Adoption, Protection and Promotion of Child Rights in the National Children’s Council; Lambert Hategekimana, confirmed the issue of child beggars who are ‘hired’ from their parents in the morning and returned in the evening.

Speaking on a panel during the weekly press show, Hategikimana explained that although Rwanda is doing better than most countries in terms of child protection, there are people who are still involving children in activities that are either above their physical abilities, activities that keep them out of school or even those that are demeaning.

"We are currently dealing with an emerging crime that we categorise as trafficking, where some parents are ‘renting’ out their children. These children are rented from their families in the morning, used to beg the whole day and in the evening, a commission is given to the parents. We must collectively put a stop to this,” he said.

He pointed out that the education system in Rwanda today enables every child to go to school but some families are lagging behind in ensuring that their children are protected from working in mining fields and crop fields.

Although the minimum age for admission to employment is sixteen (16) years, a child aged between thirteen (13) and fifteen (15) years is allowed to perform only light works in the context of apprenticeship’.

This provision is constantly used by some employers to take advantage of children.

Alexandre Twahirwa, a legal expert says that although Rwandan laws are very clear, there are big gaps in terms of implementation which may leave children at a disadvantage.

"While the laws and the policies are very clear about what activities a child can be involved in and those he or she can’t, most people are not aware of them. There is a need for sensitisation for every stakeholder. It should involve everyone,” he advised.

He tasked the government to follow-up on committees in charge of child protection at local levels of administration to follow up keenly and produce timely status reports.

The numbers

A report from a survey conducted by the National Human Rights Commission in May this year sampled 425 children engaged in child labour in 11 districts.

The sampled children are aged 5-17 years.

The report indicated that a significant number of children engaged in child labour activities were found in cities, markets and bus stations.

A half (50 per cent) of children that participated in the study live with their parents, of them the majority 62.1 per cent live with both parents. Among children who do not live with their parents 26.6 per cent live with their bosses and 51 (24.6 per cent) live alone on streets.

The majority 339 (80.5 per cent) have dropped out of school while only 82 (19.5 per cent) were still at school during the survey.

A total of 86 per cent of the children who were not at school during the survey blamed lack of school materials like books and school uniform plus other school requirements like teachers’ incentives, failure by parents to contribute on school feeding programme.