Senators probe child trafficking in public hospitals and clinics

Parliament is now seeking to unearth the extent of child trafficking in public health facilities run by the national and county governments and clinics across the country.

The move comes after a court convicted a former social worker at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital in Nairobi of facilitating the sale of several children.

In the probe being undertaken by the Senate Health Committee, the senators are seeking to establish reasons behind the vice.

“The committee should provide a detailed report on investigations into allegations of child trafficking facilitated by staff in government health facilities,” Nominated Senator Esther Okenyuri said.

In her request to the House, she wants the panel to particularly address allegations that a social worker — MLKH — facilitated the sale of multiple children.

Senate Speaker Amoson Kingi cleared the request and ordered the Health Committee chaired by Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago to immediately swing into action.

The panel will also establish the disciplinary and legal actions taken against government employees found complicit in child trafficking cases.

“The committee should state the collaborative measures in place between law enforcement agencies, health authorities and child protection services to dismantle these illegal operations,” she said.

In October 2023, the court sentenced Fred Leparan, a former social worker at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, to 35 years in jail after he was found guilty of child trafficking.

He was arrested in 2020 and found guilty of child trafficking, child neglect and conspiracy to commit crime. His co-accused Selina Adundo was sentenced to six years in jail or Sh300,000 fine.

The pair was convicted of child trafficking and negligence after they were exposed in a BBC report in 2020.

In the probe, the senators are also investigating informal health clinics believed to be abetting the vice.

“The committee should provide a status report on the licensing and regulatory oversight of private health facilities, explaining why unlicensed clinics continue to operate unchecked,” she said.

Okenyuri also wants the committee to provide a list of licensed and unlicensed clinics in Nairobi’s Kayole area and other identified hotspots in informal the settlements.

She wants the government to shut down all the illegal clinics allegedly involved in child trafficking.

“Indicate the measures being implemented to ensure compliance with health regulations as well as the closure of facilities involved in illegal activities,” the senator said.

There are a few reliable statistics on the extent of child trafficking in Kenya. In 2023, former Labour and Social Protection CS Florence Bore said more than 6,000 children were reported missing between July 2022 and May 2023.

Bore had indicated the government would abolish all privately owned orphanages and children’s homes within the next eight years – a move aimed at ending child trafficking.

“The reason why we are closing them up is because we have been given directions under the Children’s Act that private homes should be closed.”

“They have also been routes for child trafficking, so the government wants us to retain the institutions that we have under the Child Welfare Society of Kenya.”