A rights lobby, Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child Labour, in collaboration with the Public Prosecutor (ODPP), are drafting a Bill and at the same time preparing a prosecution handbook to ensure justice for children who are in conflict with the law.
Accel Africa National Project Coordinator, Helen Rintari, revealed that the organisation has been carrying out capacity building for ODPP on prosecution of children, a move that will boost the existing laws including the Children‘s Act and the Employment Act in the fight against child labour.
Speaking during a cooperatives’ delegates meeting in a Kisii town hotel, Rintari said that all these acts of Parliament have clauses that, if implemented, will enable protection of children from all forms of injustices.
“All these Acts have clauses and policies that, if put in place, will ensure the children of Kenya are protected even when they find themselves facing prosecution in court,” said Rintari.
She noted that the meeting, which was part of on-going public participation across the country, was convened to validate a cooperative needs assessment report in Kenya’s agricultural sector particularly in the tea and coffee sectors where child labour is rampant.
“This has also been done in a few other counties that deal particularly in tea and coffee production, especially areas like Meru and Nyeri counties,” she said.
Commenting on the 100 per cent transition for grade 10 learners in senior schools, Rintari applauded the government for the effort and called for more diligence in providing the children with adequate shelter and enough food among other basic necessities.
She called for provision of enough learning materials, clean water, mental wellness, and enough teachers among other factors that enable safe learning.
Rintari, however, acknowledged that since all needs cannot be met at once, the first step of getting children away from home and from toxic spaces into the school environment, as the government was endeavouring to achieve, was a stride towards addressing the child labour menace.
Kisii County Executive Committee Member in charge of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperative development, Erick Ongeri, noted the importance of addressing child labour in the value chains of coffee and tea in Kisii and many other counties by looking into the interventions that are supposed to mitigate the vice.
Ongeri cited sectors where the two levels of government have been vigilant including the tobacco farming, soapstone mining and brick-making where parents use children to eke a living.
He said the meeting would also look into ways of improving coffee and tea factories through installation of modern equipment and delivery of quality crops.
During the last national population census for 2008, at least one child in every four were found to be deeply entrenched in child labour.
According to Rintari, the Accel Africa project, with support from the government, has also finalised conducting a fresh census which will give the current status of child labour as per the year 2025.
“The results are staggering because we are talking about post-COVID, the harsh economic times, and other challenges,” Rintari regretted.
She cited various ways her organisation was supporting cooperatives, including through sensitisation about occupational safety of farmers to prevent accidents, child-headed families and diseases that cause poverty.
Others are social protection which enable children to enjoy their childhood, improved livelihoods to help families have more than one source of income to be able to send their children to school, and through doing work correctly within the right hours with correct wages.
By Jane Naitore
