More kids resurface in the streets

Kids appear to be resurfacing in the streets here in Monrovia and Paynesville and engaging in street selling between moving vehicles,despite pronouncement in January by authorities of the Liberia National Police, the Monrovia City Corporation and Paynesville City Corporation prohibiting street selling by kids.

The Monrovia City Corporation or MCC and the Paynesville City Corporation or PCC warned in January this year that the public should not buy from kids found selling in the streets. They were backed by the Liberia National Police or LNP, with warning that violators would be penalized.

But the mandate appears to have been observed only for a quite short time, as kids return to street selling here before the end of the first quarter of the year. In a conversation with the NewDawn recently, a mother of three children Ms. Kurbo Sumo says the MCC and PCC agenda cannot be achieved on grounds that the corporations have no plan for the kids after taking them from the streets.

According to her, some of the kids that are found selling in the streets are staying with single or forester parents, and are made tohelp with the demands of the home due to the economic situationof the state.

She argues that those sending kids in the streets to sell are nothappy to see the kids sell in the streets, but claims that it is due to the fact that they have nothing to sustain the family.

Also speaking with the NewDawn, Peterson Jallah says government is noted for crafting or passing law but lacks the implementingpowers to ensure that the law is effective.

“As for one I’m against the issue of kids selling on the streets, but again this is an old age problem that needs to be addressed carefully and with enough time and attention. You cannot jump up one morning and think you can do it”, Jallah says.

When contacted to commend on the resurfacing of kids in the streets, MCC Mayor Madam Clara Doe Mvogo said she could not speak to the issue on grounds that it is highly political.
By Bridgett Milton-Editing by Winston W. Parley