Child Labour Often Hides Behind “Helping”

By Maureen Karanja

Recently, Kenyans across social media were united in outrage after the rescue of a 12-year-old orphaned girl from what can only be described as domestic servitude at the home of a relative. For one and a half years, she was reportedly kept out of school and forced to care for infant triplets, clean the household and perform numerous other chores. According to reports, this was all done under coercion, including threats to her life from the very person who was supposed to be her guardian.

This story is deeply distressing. Unfortunately,while it captured national attention, it was not an isolated incident but a glimpse into a widespread problem that often remains hidden behind closed doors.

In Kenya today, over 400,000 children are today trapped in domestic work. Many of them end up in the homes of relatives, neighbours  or acquaintances who initially promise to provide them with a better future. However, somewhere along the way, that promise is broken and the child becomes a source of unpaid labour.

Unfortunately, this does not just happen indoors. If you drive through the wheat farms of Narok during harvest season, you will likely see young boys spending entire days under the hot sun chasing quelea birds away from fruiting crops. This is a common scenario across rural and urban Kenya alike, where child labour continues to thrive in forms that have become so familiar that many people no longer question them.

The Kenyan law is clear: children under the age of 13 must not be engaged in any form of work. For children aged 13 to 16, only light work is permitted, and only where it does not harm their health or development or interfere with their education. In all cases, the law seeks to protect children from exploitative or hazardous labour that undermines their wellbeing, safety, and schooling, including in domestic work settings.

Meanwhile, the true scale of the problem remains hidden, often masked by the language used to describe it. Employers and guardians frequently refer to these arrangements as “helping” “assisting at home” or “being raised by relatives.” Such language softens the reality and makes exploitation appear normal, even charitable. It creates the illusion that a child is simply contributing to household responsibilities when, in many cases, they are effectively working full-time without pay or freedom.

The distinction matters because there is a world of difference between a child helping with age-appropriate chores at home and a child being responsible for an entire household. There is a difference between teaching responsibility and denying a child the opportunity to attend school. And there, definitely, is a difference between family support and forced labour.

At the same time, the reality experienced by many child domestic workers is far bleaker than the language used to describe it. Reports from grassroots child protection organisations reveal that some children enter domestic service as young as seven years old. Many work from early morning until late at night and remain effectively on call around the clock. Their movements are also often heavily restricted, leaving them isolated from friends and peers.

Even more troubling are the risks that remain largely hidden from public view. Child domestic workers face significant exposure to physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Cases of sexual exploitation are also widely believed to be underreported, partly because the abuse occurs behind closed doors and partly because children fear retaliation if they speak out.

What makes the issue even more urgent is that the economic conditions driving child labour are becoming increasingly severe. Rising living costs, food insecurity and the uneven recovery from the economic disruptions of recent years have placed immense pressure on vulnerable households. This helps explain why families struggling to survive may send their child to live with relatives or to work in exchange for food and shelter- arrangements that can quickly become pathways to exploitation and abuse.

Against this backdrop, addressing child labour requires stronger enforcement of existing laws and greater investment in social protection programs to support vulnerable families before they reach a point of crisis. Schools, local leaders, religious institutions and community-based organisations also have a critical role to play in identifying children who have disappeared from classrooms or who appear to be carrying responsibilities far beyond their years.

Most importantly, we must change how we talk about child labour. Words matter. And disguising exploitation as “helping” makes society less likely to recognise it and challenge it. We begin to normalise situations that should alarm us. If we are serious about protecting children, we must call exploitation what it is and confront it wherever it occurs, ensuring that every child has the chance to grow in safety and not spend their childhood in service to others.

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The writer is the Programs Manager at the Freedom Fund. Her email is  mkaranja@freedomfund.org