ABSTRACT
Policymaking processes often rely on specific knowledge, images or frames and discursive mechanisms on the identity, needs and rights of those targeted by policies. This chapter, a genealogy of policies on poor and vulnerable children in Kenya, specifically, and in Africa, generally examines how various discourses on poor and vulnerable children and youth emerge and connect in different moments. Drawing on various texts from Kenya while seeking generalizations for Africa, this discussion is not a policy tracing but a Foucauldian genealogy that draws upon history to problematize and critically engage the present. This genealogy, therefore, provides the changing representations of the experience of child poverty and vulnerability. For Kenya and Africa, the discourse of a poor and vulnerable child continues to thrive, with specific implications for children's experience.
