Children’s Rights in Kenya: Mombasa, Nairobi, Naivasha, Suba,Tharaka, Situation Analysis 2007

Save the Children Canada, Save the Children Finland and Save the Children Sweden commissioned a study on the situational analysis of children’s rights in Kenya in 2006. The overall objective was to produce an authoritative and comprehensive situational analysis on the rights of the child in Kenya that will benefit Save the Children members and other actors by providing updated baseline information that will inform interventions. The study was conducted in five Kenyan districts: Tharaka, Suba, Naivasha, Mombasa and Nairobi. Target areas were selected based on broad regional representation. Data collection entailed document review, Focal Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant interviews.

This study  begins by examining the socioeconomic and political context of child protection in Kenya. It goes further to highlight the legal and policy framework. It delves into the actual survey in the five targeted districts and analyses its findings against the UNCRC. It concludes by making recommendations on the child protection in Kenya.

Findings from the study indicate that the main issues impinging on children’s rights include poverty, harmful culture, poor infrastructure and facilities, inadequate services, family disintegration, urbanisation, HIV/AIDS and internal displacement. The most common forms of children’s rights violation entailed inaccessible health care; unsafe water and poor sanitation; inaccessible education and poor transition; sexual abuse, exploitation, child prostitution, abandonment and neglect; harmful cultural practices such as early marriage and FGM; corporal punishment; child labour; drug abuse and engaging in crime.