New figures show child-related offences and missing cases remain high, highlighting why street children continue to be a pressing issue.
At sunrise, the city stretches awake—shops roll open, taxis honk into motion, and sidewalks begin to fill.. Among the early risers are children.. Not in uniforms, heading to school, but in worn-out clothes, clutching bottles, scraps, or nothing at all.For them, the street is not a shortcut or a playground.. It is home.. Their journeys here are rarely simple.. Behind every child on the pavement is a story that began somewhere else—often in a place
that was meant to be safe.. For 13-year-old Musa [name changed], the turning point came quietly.. What began as occasional arguments at home slowly turned into a daily conflict.. Food became scarce, and school became a luxury.. One night, after a violent confrontation, he walked out and never returned.Musa’s story is not unusual.. Many children leave home not in rebellion but in response to conditions they can no longer endure—abuse, neglect, hunger, or loss.. A
great deal of them end up being caught in the crosshairs and drive crime in the country, either wittingly or unwittingly.. The 2025 Annual Crime Report tallied 8,064 child-related offences.. While this represented a 14.3 percent drop from the 9,408 cases registered in 2024, the general consensus is that there is work to be done.. Musa’s case of child disappearing/missing is probably among the 2,092 cases reported in 2025.. In 2024, there were 2,237 cases
reported.. The previous years in 2023 (2,208) and 2022 (2,530) also managed to breach the 2,000 mark.
street children, child-related offences, missing children, Musa case, annual crime report, 2025 crime data