PS: State hunting down cartels profiting from beggars
Irene Githinji @gitshee
Social Protection Principal Secretary Nelson Marwa has said the government is running a massive crackdown on cartels, out to profit from street beggars.
Marwa said the government will this time break the cartel by focusing on unscrupulous individuals behind the ring that uses beggars to collect money in the streets for selfish gain, adding that they have already identified the cartels involved in profiteering from beggars.
“The cartels will be hunted down. It will not help to just bundle up the beggars in trucks, we are now focusing on the root cause of the problem,” said Marwa, who spoke during the commemoration of the Day of African Child.
Stop practice
“We have established that the beggars are dropped to their designated areas as early as 4am and picked in the evening and we are now warning that this practice should not continue,” said the PS.
Marwa said there are several categories of street families including those who are ‘day scholars’ and only position themselves at strategic places to evoke sympathy.
He said others are just in the streets since they are used to freebies despite having a home while another group was born and brought up in the streets.
