Labour CS Alfred Mutua /EZEKIEL AMING’A
This directorate provides the secretariat for the Board of Trustees for the National Assistance Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking and the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Advisory Committee.
The fund offers rescue, necessities and support to trafficking victimsadults and children-, including the return and repatriation of Kenyans trafficked abroad.
“From July 2024 to the present, 133 victims have been rescued and assisted,” Mutua said.
The children, he said, were destined for overseas but were not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. During this period, the ministry approved travel for 2,650 children.
Mutua made the announcement before the Senate’s National Cohesion, Equal Opportunity and Regional Integration Committee on Wednesday.
This revelation follows a shocking report from the US highlighting how Kenyan women and girls are trafficked to work in brothels in the Middle East and Asia.
The 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report shows traffickers are recruiting foreigners for sex work in Kenya, leading to the characterisation of Kenya as a hotspot for human trafficking.
“Traffickers exploit women and children in sex trafficking, often facilitated by family members in informal settings and increasingly utilising online recruitment throughout Kenya, including in extraterritorial sexual exploitation and abuse in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu,” the report states.
A recent report by the civil society on the status of counter-trafficking in Kenya submitted to the UN said human trafficking in Kenya is a growing concern, fuelled by poverty, unemployment and weak legal frameworks
. Mutua told the committee, chaired by Marsabit Senator Mohamed Chute, that the DCS is spearheading the repatriation and reintegration of Kenyans trafficked to Myanmar.
The advisory committee advices CS on inter-agency activities aimed at combating human trafficking and on preventive, protective and rehabilitative programmes for trafficked persons.
The CS disclosed that 120,909 cases of violence against children were reported and managed through DCS offices countrywide last year.
“In the last three years, 499,298 children cases have been heard and managed in children’s offices across the country,” the CS said.
According to the 2019 Violence Against Children (VAC) survey, the vice is prevalent in the country. The survey showed nearly half of females (45.9 per cent) and more than half of males (56.1 per cent) experience childhood violence in Kenya.
Physical violence is the most common type of violence experienced in childhood in the country. Two out of five females (38.8 per cent) and half of males (51.9 per cent) experienced childhood physical violence.
In addition, 15.6 per cent of females experienced childhood sexual violence and 62.6 per cent of the 15.6 per cent experienced multiple incidents before the age of 18.
“The directorate implements the Spot It Stop It campaign that creates awareness on equitable, responsible care giving and negative impact of VAC,” Mutua told the panel.
The government is also running campaigns against harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, child abuse, child marriage and sexual exploitation of children, including online sexual abuse and exploitation.
DCS operates 30 statutory children institutions, including nine rehabilitation schools, 14 children’s remand homes, five rescue centres and two national reception, classification and assessment centres.
