This year’s Day of the African Child evaluated AU member states’ progress in integrating human rights and child rights-based approaches into national planning and budgeting frameworks.
This comes amid growing concerns across the continent over cuts to children's services, with several countries and campaigners reporting pernicious impacts.
While these cuts are largely attributed to stark realities of global inequality, including debt crisis and declining foreign aid, African governments must act quickly and prioritise funding for child protection services despite the challenging economic situation.
Kenya’s budgetary allocation for child protection programmes has declined over the past decade, averaging Sh4.5 billion annually.
Even with the creation of a new State Department under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the total budget of Sh11 billion still reflects a troubling gap between the government’s ambitious policy commitments and real investment.
The persistent failure to fund child protection is a grave moral failing and a strategic oversight, as the country’s inadequate investment in safeguarding children's futures undermines stability and sustainable development.
This dire situation is a "polycrisis", with children facing a severe lack of basic health, education and safety nets, alongside the rising cases of violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse.
Outdated laws further curtail efforts to tackle sexual violence and abuse, including FGM, trafficking and child marriage, as national budgets cannot be allocated for what the law fails to define, uphold, prioritise or protect.
When the law fails to protect children, efforts to mainstream and implement their rights through national policy and budget planning are futile.
Kenya passed the Sexual Offences Act in 2006, marking a major milestone in the fight against sexual and gender-based violence.
With human rights advocacy groups’ clamour for a comprehensive framework, the key anti-SGBV law addressed glaring gaps in legislation, particularly around protection for children.
The SOA 2006 consolidated all sexual offences into a single legal framework, broadening the scope of punishable offences, including gang rape, and clearly distinguished between rape and defilement.
Unlike previous laws that framed sexual offences primarily as moral violations, the SOA 2006 reframed sexual offences as crimes against the individual. Notably, it rejected the notion that children can consent to sexual activity, removing this as a legal defence.
However, enacted in 2006, is it fit for today, amid a changing world, ever-evolving forms of crimes, such as in the digital environment, and justice systems that must be more responsive and survivor-centred?
Once considered groundbreaking, the law cannot be relied on to protect children’s rights; too often, it has become one of the barriers they must overcome.
A 2022 study by COVAW and OSIEA revealed that most SGBV cases take over four years to conclude, with the majority withdrawn before reaching resolution.
Amid the growing concerns over child protection gaps, human rights advocacy groups have once again renewed their call to amend the Sexual Offences Act of 2006, pushing for a stronger, more responsive justice system.
In collaboration with the government, they are developing a coordinated response to strengthen and finalise the Sexual Offences Amendment Bill which underscores the urgent need for enhanced government accountability, child-centric legislative reform and a responsive justice system.
Key proposals include prohibiting the withdrawal of complaints and out-of-court settlements. To address delays and improve access to justice, the proposed law proposes a one-year timeline from the time a case is reported to its conclusion, delivering timely justice to survivors.
It also expands the scope of law to address emerging offences such as technology-facilitated abuse, which is a major driver of online sexual exploitation.
These efforts are taking us a step closer to creating the national holistic legal system needed to safeguard the rights of every child.
Kenya is about to get a new sexual offences law. However, this is not unprecedented. In 2016, the Sexual Offences Bill was introduced in Parliament with progressive provisions, including mandatory background checks for individuals seeking jobs involving children.
It also sought to ban traditional dispute resolution practices like marrying off children and accepting out-of-court compensation instead of legal action.
Despite its promise, the Bill failed to pass in 2017; a missed opportunity that underscores the urgency and importance of getting it right this time.
As stakeholders finalise the process of updating the Sexual Offences Amendment Bill, they must hasten the process, ensuring it is comprehensive, visionary and authoritative. It must reflect the constitutional commitments, aligning with the regional and international obligations.
Most importantly, when brought to Parliament, lawmakers must treat the Sexual Offences Amendment Bill as a priority, even amid a backlog of pending bills.
Every delay and failure to act leaves another child at risk, another survivor silenced, and another injustice buried in outdated and out-of-touch law.
The children survivors of today cannot afford to wait for ‘yesterday’s law to catch up with today’s injustices.
Executive Director, Just Rights for Children, Kenya
