Is There No Safe Place for Kenya's Children?

Kenyan children have yet another reason to fear sexual exploitation in a country running rampant with abuse. The BBC reports that over 1,000 teachers were fired across Kenya in the past two years for sexually abusing their female students. Most were ages 12 to 15. Many were impregnated by their teachers. Boys were not safe either, with reports of their abuse now surfacing.

I love Kenya. I've spent time there and met wonderful people making a difference in children's lives. Groups like Ghetto Light Youth in the Nairobi's Kibera Slums and the International Justice Mission in Nairobi work to give them a safe place, to teach them they are more than just fodder for defilers. I personally helped them care for and love the beautiful children of Kenya. But it isn't enough. When 650 teachers were fired in 2009 for sexually abusing students in government schools and 550 teachers so far in 2010 were fired for the same reason, there is something wrong. The abuse of children in Kenya is all too commonplace. Reports of increases in sexual and labor abuse can be found when the Children Act passed in 2001, with the same "Rise in Child Abuse" headlines popping up again and again over the last 10 years. That isn't just news. It's an epidemic.

In 2006, Heimo Lakkonnen, UNICEF representative in Kenya, said "The level of violence against children has reached totally unacceptably levels in Kenya. The level of sexual violence is especially shocking," and that the way to stop it was better communication. "We need to get people talking, to break the silence around violence and make sure that everyone knows where to go to get help." At the time, he suggested "safe schools." Then In 2007, Kenya passed the Sexual Offenses Act, substantially strengthening penalties for child sex abuse, but convictions have been hard to come by.

In Friday's BBC story, Ahmed Hussein from Kenya's Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development, echoed Lakkonnen, perhaps unknowingly, that poor communication is partly to blame for the cycle of abuse in Kenya, but that "now communication is everywhere - there's mobiles across the country." Indeed a nationwide confidential helpline set up for student victims has abuse reports coming in frequently. But it isn't enough. The officials investigating the abuse must pass on vital information for convictions to be made, which they are not. Adults who molest children, sell them for sex, or use them as cheap labor must be brought to justice.

I've heard first-hand the stories of children who are abused in Kenya — a family of children, left adultless by AIDS, endured abuse from a neighbor to remain in their small shack and because the man would sometimes bring them food. Others tell of how their families would not speak out against their defilers for fear of retribution, because it would bring "shame" on the family, or because they were paid to keep quiet. Police are also known for taking bribes from abusers and even abusing children themselves.

So if home is not a safe place, school is not a safe place, and local police departments are not a safe place, where do kids go when they have no Ghetto Light or IJM near them? How does the cycle of poverty feeding abuse stop? Tell the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, to publicly denounce the abuse of Kenya's children and make their safety a priority! If Kenya's children are in crisis, so is the future of Kenya.

Photo By: Sarah R. Parker