Is the county justified to claim that the national government bears the most responsibility for their welfare?
On 21st and 22nd May, in an operation to take them off the street and either place them in care centres or take them back to their homes. The operation was allegedly carried out by police working with Nairobi County officials to target the street children, who were reportedly becoming a nuisance and a threat to law and order, but the county officials denied being involved in the swoop.
Confusingly, at three of the four rehabilitation centres run by the Nairobi County government — Shauri Moyo, Joseph Kang’ethe, Kayole and Bahati — found that there were no children who arrived there around the time of the operation according to the institutions’ managers.
The county government maintains that they have no resources to take care of the children, adding that the overall responsibility is on the national government to house and rehabilitate the street children.
So the question is, does the national government bear the sole responsibility for the welfare of street children?
has researched the issue, with input from the in Kenya and finds the claim to be PARTIALLY TRUE based on the following facts.
puts the number of street children in Kenya at between 250,000 and 300,000, with 60,000 in Nairobi alone.
The disappearance of 470 children may not sound like much given these numbers, but it is only that have highlighted the general lack of clarity over who is responsible for the welfare of street children. This confusion and inaction on the part of the various agencies tasked with ensuring that the children are taken off the street for rehabilitation is putting more children on the streets at risk, even as officials repeatedly pass the buck over who is actually responsible for them.
In order to understand the confusion over who between the county and the national governments is responsible for the welfare of street children, we need to look at the various policy documents that are meant to guide how each level of government responds to this situation.
The national government recognizes that child protection is a issue that requires everyone to be involved in order to prevent violence and exploitation of children and respond to protection related needs.
The 2011 breaks down the roles of the national and the county governments in child protection based on the roles and functions they perform. Additionally, the contain a coordinated action plan at county level, and providing direction for both formal and informal actors.
The national government’s role in all this is to coordinate the actions of various agencies under the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Development. The Ministry is charged with the responsibility of through the and the . Additionally, the also formulates policies, coordinates, oversees and advocates for children’s rights.
The 2011 framework also shows that the county government’s role is . The county governments are tasked with mobilizing resources on behalf of children, facilitating training for Children’s Officers and Area Advisory Councils, and implementing the National Data Information System in every sub-county.
The national government set up the in March 11, 2003 through the then Ministry of Local Government. The fund was to be used for children removed from the streets and placed in schools and rehabilitation centres and in employment.
The national government has an annual allocation for the fund and in the current financial year 2017/18, the proposed with a to be reintegrated with their families. The Nairobi County government has proposed an for 2017/18 to rescue and rehabilitate . The county currently runs four rehabilitation centres - Shauri Moyo, Joseph Kang’ethe, Kayole and Bahati - and it is constructing the to facilitate 3,000 street children..
Both the national and the county governments have a role to play to ensure the rescue and rehabilitation of street children. The national government allocates resources to the various state organs and agencies tasked with social protections for street children, and the Nairobi County government is in charge of implementing the programmes that these various agencies have in place.
This makes the claim by the county that the national government bears most of the responsibility in the caring of street children to be PARTIALLY TRUE. The national government is in charge of the national child protection and welfare system, while the County Coordinator of Children's Services is responsible for the programmes and projects at county level to ensure that the system is functioning.
The county’s claim that it has no resources for this is also MISLEADING, given the various allocations it has made, and the fact that it is currently running four rehabilitation centres — Shauri Moyo, Joseph Kang’ethe, Kayole and Bahati — and a fifth one, the, is currently under construction.
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This report was written by PesaCheck Fellow George Githinji, a researcher and writer with interest in devolution and public finance.The infographics are by PesaCheck Fellow Brian Wachanga, who is a Kenyan civic technologist interested in data visualisation. The report was edited by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi, with fact-checking support from the International Budget Partnership (Kenya)
PesaCheck, co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, is East Africa’s first fact-checking initiative. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of so-called ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ or SDG public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit.
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