Fears for children

There are children everywhere, trotting to school (some as young as four of five) along the side of the road with a book bag on their back. Others play in the gutters while mother minds a vegetable stall. We have always noticed how free children are here to go alone to school, to a shop, wander and play. But in the last few weeks a new fear for children's safety has surfaced in Nairobi. Four or five children have been snatched from a bus, from a Sunday School class and elsewhere and in some cases ransom money demanded. While some are found, one little girl is still missing although the parents have paid up. The boy who rode a bus to go 300 metres because his mother didn't want him to cross a busy road, disappeared yesterday.