The government has said it will continue to work closely with the management of privately owned care homes in the country to ensure all children in these centres are reintegrated with their families.
Children’s Department, Labor and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore said, this will provide support in investigating into the circumstances that left the child abandoned.
According to Bore, there was an urgent need to ensure the homeless, orphaned and separated children currently being housed at the homes are reunited with their families.
“My ministry is fully committed to ensuring the rights of our children are protected, we want to have them back in the families so that they can enjoy parental care just like other children,” she said.
Speaking during her tour of Muranga and Nanyuki rescue centres, the CS underscored the significance of the centres in offering the necessary care to these abandoned children.
The Child Welfare Society of Kenya is currently putting up Temporary Places of Safety for rescued children in some parts of the country.
The centres give the rescued children a safe space for rehabilitation from trauma and other essential services for their development and well-being.
These facilities are set up in a family manner and once completed will house the children, giving them a homely feeling in contrast to the traditional dormitory setting of children’s homes, she said.
“For those children who are homeless, orphaned or are separated from their parents they will be offered an alternative family care programme,” said the CS.
Children as young as a day old are given attention and nurtured at the centres.
The school-going ones get an opportunity to learn as the process of reintegration continues with the institution also monitoring the growth of the children to ensure their progress on all fronts.
The transformation of the centres is in line with the Children’s Act, 2022 on safeguarding the rights and best interests of the child.
The Act upholds and promotes the rights of children to parental, family and community-based care by prohibiting placement of children under three years in residential care unless extremely necessary.
It also promotes alternative family care for children without parental care and winding up the operations of privately-owned residential care institutions by 2032 as well as streamlining other forms of alternative family care.
The Act has also provided clarity of roles and responsibilities for various actors both State and nonstate in the country.