Kenya’s child welfare in deplorable state – lobbies

The Kenyan child is still confronted with violence at family level, forced marriage, labour exploitation and female genital mutilation, civil society groups have told the UN.

This, they said, hinders them from being ready to compete on equal footing with children from other parts of the world.

The lobbies singled out that violence and abuse is particularly rampant, with boys the main victims, turning out as frustrated men who readily resort to violence and excessive aggression when facing challenges and rejection, especially from their female counterparts.

They directly link this to be part of the broader problem of violence against women and femicide in the country.

Through a detailed report submitted to the UN’s Universal Peer Review mechanism, the lobbies numbering 12, working specifically in the space of child right protection, complain that though the state was putting in the effort to protect children as per its global commitment and requirement of the law, a lot was still outstanding.

The report is part of submission of the civil society before the UN’s pre-session of the Universal Peer Review mechanism in Geneva that ran between February 18 and 21.

The Universal Periodic Review is a process that allows UN member states to assess each other’s human rights records and takes place every four-and-a-half years.

The third cycle took place in January 2020. The fourth cycle is upcoming later in 2025.

The lot says 56.1 per cent of boys in Kenya experience childhood violence, compared to girls (45.9).

Further, nearly one in six females experienced childhood sexual violence, with a lower percentage of males affected. “Violence against children is a serious public health, human rights and social problem,” they say