Focus on new legislation and hopes for child welfare

Kenyan children, child activists and organisations serving children are pinning their hopes on the implementation of the new Children’s Act to improve the lot of the nation's youth, according to humanitarian sources. The Act, in which the government has undertaken to put in place full safeguards for the realisation of the rights of the child in line with the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child (CRC), was passed by parliament last October and got presidential assent on New Year's but only became came into effect on Friday, 1 March. Activists in Kenya were hopeful that implementation of the Act could bring a dramatic change in the country's care for its children, which has been marked by a tragic combination of inattention, neglect and abuse. "The Act is the best thing that has happened to Kenyan children," according to the Kenya Alliance for Advancement of Children (KAAC). The new law states that no child will be subjected to any form of discrimination on the ground of origin, sex, religion, creed, custom, language, opinion, conscience, colour, birth, social or other status, race, disability, tribe and residence or local connection. The Act outlaws the widely criticised practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), as well as child prostitution and child labour, among other forms of abuse, according to the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN). Under the legislation, a child is defined as any human being under the age of 18, while a child "of tender years" is defined as being under 10 years. "This moment is significant in several ways, including the fact that the coming into force of the Act underscores the country’s commitment to domesticating the Conventions of the Rights of the Child (CRC), which it signed," according to Denise Shepherd-Jones, communications officer at the Kenya country office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). "The Act promises to make immense improvements to the lives of many Kenyan children who, up until now, are plagued with high illiteracy levels, frequent rape cases and child labour among other woes," Shepherd-Jones told IRIN. "This is a giant stride in harmonising the national laws with international agreements which Kenya has signed." Among other child rights concerns, the Kenyan government reported in September that there were an estimated three to four million child labourers in the country. In its report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Kenya said many of the children were working under hardship conditions which negatively affected their health, education and development. In some sectors of the Kenyan economy, it said, children comprised 70 percent of the labour force, many working in violation of national and international laws. Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, Heritage and Sports Wycliffe Osundwa reported that, although the government had given priority to critical areas of child care, Kenya's severe economic and social difficulties had prevented the full realisation of children's rights in the country. The UN Committee expressed concerns about alleged police brutality against street children and the inadequate enforcement of legislation to ensure the "physical and mental integrity" of all children. Rights and advocacy groups have also expressed concern about the physical and sexual abuse of Kenyan children, including commercial sexual exploitation; the increasing burden of HIV/AIDS, especially on orphans and children prematurely forced into adult roles; the widely practised tradition of genital mutilation; and inadequate access to education, especially for girls. Child-rights activists are agreed that the coming into force of the Act makes life somewhat more promising for Kenyan children than it was in 1996, when the Children’s Bill was first introduced for debate in parliament, according to humanitarian sources. "It has been a long haul for children and child activists alike. However, more Kenyans are now warming up to the idea of placing a higher premium to issues pertaining to children," Joyce Umbima, the executive director of KAAC, one of the most assertive child-oriented organisations in the country, told IRIN. The entry into force of the Act was "important to the country’s judicial process, because, apart from being the only sobering measure of how discredited the laws relating to children had become, it will consummate the consolidation of all previous legislation pertaining to the protection and welfare of children into one Act," the East African Standard newspaper wrote in an analysis article on Thursday, 28 February. According to the Act, children will have the right to health and medical care, "provision of which shall be the responsibility of the parents, extended family and the government", according to ANPPCAN Chairman Lee Muthoga, a leading lawyer in Kenya, quoted in the East African Standard on Thursday. Muthoga observed that, to improve the situation of children in the country, everybody would be required to pitch in. "Let nobody misinterpret the law, because it is not the responsibility of one person or institution to make the Children’s Act succeed," said the patron of the Kenya Girl Guides Association, Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch. UNICEF has said it will be working in synergy with the Kenyan government to create awareness about the new legislation among the Kenyan public, because "the Act cannot be understood overnight," said Shepherd-Jones. She told IRIN that UNICEF would assist the Kenya government in coming up with a popular version of the Act for the consumption of children and ordinary Kenyans. It would also train members of the country’s judiciary on its implementation, she said. Children’s courts are to be opened in various places in the country, and Aluoch, who is head of the Family Court in Kenya, is to monitor proceedings, according to news reports. Among other things, the new Act enjoins the Kenya government and parents to providing quality primary education to every child, a move that UNICEF roundly supports. "We have ceaselessly clamoured for universal primary education for every child. We are very happy that now all Kenyan children will be entitled to primary education," Shepherd-Jones told IRIN. According to the Act, anyone who infringes on a child’s right to primary education is guilty of an offence and punishable by a jail term of not more than 12 months or a maximum fine of 50,000 Kenya shillings (about US $640). However, the country’s independent Daily Nation has called for the key players to be circumspect when dealing with the issues around free primary education. "Given the fact that there are about three million eligible children out of school due to poverty and other socio-cultural and economic factors, implementing the new law will require a great deal of consultation and planning," it warned in December. There is some concern in Kenya that free and compulsory primary education could give rise to similar issues as Tanzania faces after its decision to pursue universal primary education, even as the education system is ill-prepared to accommodate a large increase in numbers. [for details, see http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20161] Despite the new law, designed to enhance child welfare and protect young people from neglect and abuse, a combination of economic and social factors is forcing more and more children to continue pouring into the streets throughout the country, according to some indigenous NGOs. "Though we cry of a poor economy, lack of resources and illiteracy as some of the hindrances that prevent us from taking care of the so-called street children, we feel that those are just excuses being used not to help them," John Gathungu, head of the Victory Free Area Self-Help Group, an NGO based in Nakuru, in Rift Valley Province, told IRIN on Wednesday. Official figures suggest the presence of between 150,000 and 200,000 street children in Kenya, of whom 60,000 are in the capital, Nairobi, alone. However, according to the Nairobi-based African Network for the Protection and Prevention against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), up to 3.5 million Kenyan children of school-going age are out of school, and a "good number" of those are on the streets. "The children will pour into the streets as long as they don't have a place to sleep and someone to cook their food. The slums are also where most of the abuse and rape of children take place," said the organisation's Phillista Onyango. While the Children's Act would be of little use in the short term, having failed to provide for mechanisms capable of solving the problem of street children, its provision for free primary education for all children would, in the long run, serve to confront the government with the task of dealing with street children, according to Onyango. Meanwhile, some of Kenya’s children have banded together to form the third children’s cabinet in Africa, after those in Botswana and Zimbabwe. The cabinet comprises 11 tough-talking teenagers, mandated by child residents of the capital, Nairobi, to advocate for the protection of children’s rights and to raise awareness on various issues affecting the lives of millions of Kenyan children. At the moment, the initiative is in its first phase, with members elected by children from Nairobi Province alone, but it is planned to extend its reach in the future. "Our main objective is to develop a new generation of Kenyan citizenry through our initiatives involving children, who will take key responsibilities and positions of administration of Kenya in the near future," the recently elected cabinet president, 15 year-old secondary school student Florence Dallu told IRIN. The UNICEF Kenya Country Office also hopes to include children’s participation in its activities this year, and possibly work with the children’s cabinet, according to Shepherd-Jones. "This is a new chapter where children themselves are spearheading their own rights, and creating public awareness on the values and importance of protecting children’s rights," Dallu added.