Bricklaying: An enterprise without age bracket

"Children, below the age of twelve, who have no choice, repeat this for one hundred times to make enough money for lunch"

Bricks dried in the sun. Photo by author.

Poverty has made children in Sigowet to push themselves to bricklaying. In the last five years when the industry started, moulding of bricks, the hardest of the menial jobs is a must thing for living.

The economy hardly support begging, a likely option. Families, most of whom are young single parents, earning less than a hundred shillings a day, have their children working in bricklaying, tea picking and transporting water.

There is a vicious circle of problems. Children who work in bricklaying are the result of early pregnancy. Their parents are unable to feed and educate.

Koiwa, a boy of twelve years, started laying bricks at the age of nine. He is from alcoholic family. When his parents overstay at the local brewery, he fends for himself.

Because of poverty, children cannot go to school. Koiwa knows too well, “I cannot go to school. I don’t have school uniform. When I go, I don’t get food.” Koiwa opted to work in order to get the basic needs.

Tindo and Cheche come from poor families. Working hard to find food, their mothers who are still under their parents neglect the older children. Thus children make their tough choices.

It is hard to eat from bricklaying: dig out clay, mix with water and mould 3 by 5 inch of clay block. Children, below the age of twelve, who have no choice, repeat this for one hundred times to make enough money for lunch.

The industry exploits. Despite the age, a boy waits for two days for the clay block to dry in order to earn. In the process a third of the bricks are damaged by the weather or animals.

The income from the industry is not enough to save. A day’s income is all expended. Even if one works hard to save for their education, the budget does not go beyond food and clothing.

Bricklaying is a life of servitude; koiwa looks older than his actual age. Sometimes he works the whole day, “in the day I mould the bricks, and at night I watch over the oven.”

Because of the need of money, children have developed multiple personalities. They have easily turned to crime. Sometimes, Koiwa is used to steal. “I go at dawn to steal polythene from other people’s stacks of bricks for a fee,” says Koiwa.

The chief is burdened. School drop out is normal. The chief trys to force them to school, “but it is hard when I do not get support from parents.”

In spite of the free primary education, a percentage of parents have not been able to send their children to school. Because of poverty, however, school drop out is high.