State advised to go slow on plans to wind up private children’s homes

Nyeri,

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

KNA by Samuel Maina

The Government has been advised to reconsider the decision to close down all privately run children’s homes and instead come up with measures that can enhance the safety and welfare of those living in unfriendly habitats.

According to Ms Ann Wambui who runs the Neema Children Center in Nyeri while the government proposal may rid the country of bogus and illegal facilities masquerading as children havens, it may also end up leaving hundreds of rescued children with nowhere to call home.

Wambui also notes that while the government's aim is to have rescued children integrated back into their families some of those children might end up either back into the streets where they came from or end up into the arms of the same people molested them.

“It is good (to abolish children’s homes) because the children will be boarding back to their relatives. But can you look on the other side? We rescue these children because they are abused by their relatives. Now you have taken them back to the same people where they were being abused. What will be the consequences,” she posed while speaking to KNA.

Wambui similarly says the planned transiting may sail into headwinds owing to the fact that many of children rescued from the streets or dumpsites are babies with health complications and need a safe haven where they can be given specialized care.

She therefore argues that were such homes and orphanages to be closed down, recovering children will be disadvantaged since few families or individuals will be willing to take up the burden of looking after them.

“I don’t think this is the best decision the government should have taken as some of these children in rescue homes were collected from diverse places after having been dumped by their parents. If we close down the very places they come to identify as home, where do they go from there?” she questioned.

“I think the government should undertake an assessment and find if such homes are fine for the task they registered (for) and if not. If fine they should show the administration how to go about it,” she has advised.

Nyeri County Children Officer Mwaniki Kung’u says the purpose of the new directive expected to run until 2032 is anchored under the Children Act of 2022 under the Care Reform Strategy in which the government intend to transform children’s homes to be providing daytime care and releasing children back into their homes in the evening.   

He says the program which will come after review after ten years will ease the process of integrating rescued children back into the community while equipping existing homes into providing other basic communal services.

Mwaniki has also lamented at the high number of children homes operating without government approval saying this had led to illegal outfits purporting to be providing welfare services to the vulnerable as a conduit for soliciting donations from well-wishers. Currently out of the 24 Charitable children homes operating in Nyeri only five are registered.

“Some of the problems with Children Homes is that many of them are not even registered. Currently out of the 24 children homes operating in Nyeri only five of them are fully registered meaning the majority are operating illegally. To make things worse many more are being opened now and then even without the knowledge of the Children Advisory Council which is mandated to oversee such processes as mandated by the National Council for Children Services,” he said.

On Sunday the Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection announced plans by the government to abolish all privately owned orphanages and children's homes within the next eight years.

While speaking in Isiolo County Bore said only government-owned homes operating under the Child Welfare Society of Kenya will be allowed to operate in order to weed out private homes that had been turned into cells for child trafficking. 

She said the children would be placed in family and community care, which offered a better environment for them.

“The reason why we are closing them up is because we have been given directions under the children’s Act that the private homes should be closed. They have also been routes for child trafficking, so the government wants us to retain the institutions that we have under the child welfare society of Kenya,” stated Bore. 

“In the next eight years those private homes will not exist. We need to prepare in order to absorb those children that will come from private homes,” she added.

Data from the Social Protection department showed that there are close to 50,000 children living in about 855 private charitable children’s institutions and others living in government-run institutions as of November 2022.

A 2017 UN children's agency report estimated that 40,000 children lived in 811 registered institutions in Kenya.

According to the Children Act of 2022 placing children without families in alternative care such as guardianship, foster care placement and adoption will curb abuse and trafficking of children.

In 2017, a non-governmental organization, Stahili Foundation, said that some orphanages and children's homes in Kenya convince families to give away their children before using them to solicit donations.

Courtesy; KNA