Advancing the rights of children deprived of parental care: Domestic adoption of children in Kenya. Master of Advanced Studies in Children’s Rights

Thesis produced by Ms. Denise Stuckenbruck in the framework of the Master of Advanced Studies in Children’s Rights, an interdisciplinary programme jointly organised by the Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB) and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. 

 This study explores the current environment surrounding domestic adoption in Kenya, to assess the main opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing this practice among local people. It includes a literature review of the issue, an analysis of the child rights framework for adoptions, a summary of the Kenyan context for child protection and uses information collected through qualitative interviews to provide a snapshot of the current situation of alternative care in Kenya. The main findings of the research are structured around three types of child care: residential care, kinship care and domestic adoption.