African Network for The Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect Director of Programmes Wambui Njuguna says children are lured into domestic work as house helps and herds boys, while others are exploited sexually/SAM WANJOHI
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 21 – Cases of child trafficking continue to be rampant in the country with the vice thriving due to serious loopholes within the criminal justice system.
While Kenya is a signatory to treaties curbing the vice and has enacted laws on the same, experts say lack of sensitisation and enforcement among other reasons has derailed their intended impact.
African Network for The Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect Director of Programmes Wambui Njuguna says children are lured into domestic work as house helps and herds boys, while others are exploited sexually.
“Children are being moved from rural areas, for example, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu; sometimes that is where the problems begin,” she said during an interview with Capital FM News.
“Because it is a criminal offence, it is not easy to always know where the children are being taken.”
She said Kenya remains a source, transit and destination for human trafficking due to a myriad of socio-economic challenges and opportunities for both traffickers and victims.
What is the prosecution rate for those involved?
Njuguna said due to the sensitivity of the illegal ‘business’, people are always wary of reporting these cases when they occur.
But when reported, police and more so those based in the rural areas are not sensitised about provisions of the law banning child trafficking.
In such circumstances, she lamented that some authorities may not “see the problem of moving children from one place to another” or may settle for a lesser crime like abuse and not trafficking.
A report by the National Crime Research Centre in 2015 revealed that human trafficking is quite prevalent in Kenya at 60 per cent in what Njuguna says is a lucrative business for the cartels involved.
Juliet Gachanja, a Nairobi based advocate and child rights technical advisor says there is a lack of standard operating procedures for security agencies meant to enforce the law.
“We do not have legal loopholes, but the only thing is lack of implementation. If you understand how human trafficking works, it is a ring. It involves a lot of people. That means to fight it, we must involve all these agencies,” she said.
Shoddy investigations into such cases, she said is also a hindrance for victims to get justice.
African Network for The Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect Regional Programme Manager Evan Munga said it is important for challenges leading to fewer cases of trafficking being prosecuted.
They were speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with enforcement agencies on Tuesday.
African Network for The Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect Director of Programmes Wambui Njuguna says children are lured into domestic work as house helps and herds boys, while others are exploited sexually/ANPPCAN
About The Author
