Abstract:
Research has uncovered substantial gender, social, and health disparities
among children and youth in street situations (CYSS) in Eldoret, Kenya.
From 2013-2014 we engaged CYSS aged 11-24 years in a qualitative study to
explore the sexual language and practices used in the street subculture in
Eldoret, Kenya. We engaged 65 CYSS in 25 in-depth interviews and five
focus group discussions. This work uncovered stark gender inequities,
which result in girls and young women in street situations experiencing
profound levels of sexual and gender-based violence and harmful sexual
and reproductive health outcomes. To comprehend the underlying drivers
of these inequities and intervene appropriately and adequately, we sought
to understand how CYSS’s social identities intersect with systems of
oppression and privilege to produce and maintain these inequities. We,
therefore, sought to reanalyze the original data from this study using
intersectionality as a theoretical framework to explore how systems of
oppression in Kenya have shaped the street subculture, constructed CYSS’s
street and resistance social identities, and how these social identities and the
street subculture intersect with macro-level structural factors to produce
health and gender inequities. Our analysis identified three distinct social
identities that are given to CYSS in Eldoret: Chokoraa (garbage pickers),
Mshefa (hustlers), and Mboga ya jeshi (vegetables for soldiers). The findings
showed how these identities and the street subculture intersect with the
patriarchy, the political-economic context, and social-cultural forces in
Kenya, resulting in hegemonic masculinity and detrimental gender roles
and norms for young men and women. Our findings show that CYSS are a
product of the oppressive systems that construct their circumstances and
shape their social identities. CYSS urgently requires policies and programs
that intervene at multiple levels to halt the harmful practices within the
street subculture and associated with street involvement
