Re-imagining and repositioning the lived experience of children seen as outsiders in Kenya

Abstract

This paper explores the contested identity and belonging for outsider-children in Kenya. I explore the experience of children born out of marriage, those from other unions, the emergent insider-outsider child and children labouring to belong. Locating this experience in a relatively protective customary and legal regime, the context of poverty and the local imaginaries of belonging reveals the complexities that animate children’s lives. I argue that children’s best interests as embedded in law, should enter into conversation with children’s lived realities.