Mercy is kept locked up at a children’s remand home. Her only ‘crime’ is not having any parents.
When my mother and
father died, my grandmother
couldn’t afford to
take care of me. She said I
should go to my uncle’s
place in Nairobi, but he
wasn’t there. A neighbour
said he had moved house. I
walked around town searching,
but when I still hadn’t
found him by 10 pm, I went to
the police. They didn’t know
where he was either. Then
they locked me up in a children’s
remand home - a
prison.
“After a month, I was sent
to this children’s remand
home with four others,
because we come from this
area. I’ve been here for a
month. I don’t understand
why I’m not allowed to go
back to my grandmother’s
house now that I’m back in
this area. Instead, I’ve been
locked up here. I think it’s
strange that children who
haven’t committed a crime,
haven’t done anything
wrong, can be locked up
with criminals. Nobody has
explained why this has happened.
It feels like it goes
against my rights, like the
adults are violating my rights.
That’s why it feels so
important for me to
vote for someone
who fights for my
rights and other children’s
rights today. It
feels just like the candidates
we read
about in The Globe
are fighting for me personally,
because they want children
all over the world to
have good lives.
“I don’t know what’s going
to happen to me. But this
morning, a child rights lawyer
came to the Global Vote
and said that she’d help us
to get home. I really hope it’s
true. When I grow up I want
to be like her. A lawyer who
fights for the rights of the
child.”
Mercy, 12