Koome calls for protection of children online

The Judiciary will not relent in its efforts to protect the rights of children, Chief Justice Martha Koome has said.

The CJ said children, in the present day, face multiple challenges that require the intervention of state and non-state actors to safeguard the minors’ future.

The growing digital space, Koome said, is a mixed bag for children.

It provides an opportunity for children to learn but comes with its associated drawbacks, including online abuse, she said.

“For us to promote and protect the rights of children in this new space, it calls for us to work together to ensure that justice for children remains intact,” the CJ said.

“To achieve this, we must have a common goal to strive together and to understand how this best works.”

Koome made the remarks in a speech read on her behalf by Justice Teresia Matheka, chair of the National Council on Administration of Justice.

This was during celebrations to mark the Day of the African Child at Mungatsi Primary School in Busia’s Nambale subcounty on Friday.

The theme of this year’s celebrations was ‘The Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment’.

“I want to call for the strengthening of the protection of children from online abuse, violent extremism, trafficking and other emerging risks,” Koome said.

She added that a national plan of action on child online protection should be developed and implemented. 

Koome called for a review by the NCAJ of the Sexual Offences Act to address discrimination of minors based on gender.

She called for the empowerment of the county policing authorities, county police forums and the communities to undertake prevention and mitigation and intervention on countering human trafficking.

The Children’s Act of 2022 clearly protects children against any form of abuse, including online manipulation.

The Act says it is illegal to discriminate against children and that minors have the right to parental care, social security, basic education, leisure, recreation and play, religion and religious education, healthcare, inheritance as well the right to be protected against child labour.

The same law also protects children against armed conflicts, abuse, harmful cultural practices, drugs and substance abuse, besides guaranteeing their freedom from torture and detention.

Busia Deputy Governor Arthur Odera said the county will not relent in its efforts to promote children's rights, particularly the right to education.

“Our role as a government is to help grow boys into successful men and girls into successful women and we don’t recognise a third category,” Odera said.

“And in pursuit of this, I would like to let you know that we have a children’s policy that is currently being prepared and within the course of 2023. It will be a law within Busia.”

The DG said plans are also underway to build a child protection centre.