Literature on street children has documented the life of street children in four phases: at home, on the streets, in child care institutions and post institutionalization. However, the journey to the streets has not received sufficient scholarly examination. This article documents street children's experiences in search of survival in Nakuru City, Kenya. The study adopted a qualitative research design with Nakuru City being purposively selected as an emerging city and a fourth city in Kenya with the highest number of street children. Data was collected from 14 purposively street children through in‐depth interviews and analysed thematically. The study demonstrates unique experiences of the journey to the streets and recommends policy development that guarantee survival and protection rights. We conclude that the desire for survival generates resilience in children that powers them through the journey to the streets.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.