A holding cell has been established in the precincts of Meru Law Courts, courtesy of Ripples International, a human rights lobby group.
Ripples CEO John Baidoo said children should not be held in the same cells with adult offenders.
Baidoo is a lawyer and a specialist in human rights touching on women and children.
Judge Alfred Mabeya said it had been a great challenge holding juveniles with adults. “We are happy that we will no longer hold them with adults,” Mabeya said on Tuesday at the law courts after opening the facility that is the first of its kind in Meru.
Mabeya decried the congestion in local prisons. He said there is a need for decongestion.
“If Chuka had a women's prison it would greatly decongest the prison in Meru,” the judge said.
He welcomed the new Mikinduri remand prison for children, adding that they will now stop sending children to Murang'a.
Mabeya said the number of gender cases was increasing in Meru.
“There is a need to educate the community that violence does not pay,” he said.
Busia chief magistrate Lucy Ambasi lobbied for the construction of a children's holding cell when she worked in Meru and appealed for assistance from Ripples International.
