By Mary Mwendwa.
The recent cases of unrest in schools where many of the students who have been suspected to be part of the schemes to burn schools have appeared before juvenile courts across the country. These cases of unrest have increased the number of juvenile cases that have ever hit the courts in Kenya’s history. However , questions on how effective and efficient the juvenile justice systems are still hangs in balance.
The big question here remains; Are these children subjected to fair juvenile justice systems?
According to child rights activists in Kenya, the juvenile system has made strides but still not enough has been done to see children who have committed crimes access timely justice and also have a conducive environment while behind bars.
The adoption of the UN Convention on Childen’s Rights (UNCRC ) IN 1989, the progress made both locally and internationally has been inconsistent. Kenya has not been left out either, it is still struggling with many issues around child protection, some making progress other taking steps back.The juvenile justice system one of such area .
During a recent launch of guidelines on improving the Kenya Juvenile Justice System, Justice Martha Koome , Judge Court of Appeal and Chair , NACJ (National Council on the Administration of Justice )Special Task Force on Children Matters noted with a lot of concern how cases involving children had weak investigations leading to collapsing of many cases. She pointed out . “The children’s Act has not been aligned to the constitution and implementation of the act making it very difficult to handle matters on children especially crime related issues. Also the statutory institutes that are mandated to help children are tucked up, no one knows where they are and a few are aware of their existence.”She again said, “We do not know where our children are, we need a national data survey centre to help us account for every child, this is a critical area that’s needs urgent intervention because with numbers we can plan better. “
Juvenile justice system in Kenya is undergoing a transformation where stakeholders and partners have come on board to try and improve the juvenile system. For example Children Services and Probation Departments, CESVI and European Union with mechanisms that involve the child offender and family to help children who have served in jail come back and be able to be absorbed back in the society.
Truphosa Ngoli, a mother of 13 is a beneficiary of such a project.She narrates of how her life was after she lost her husband and remained in misery leading her to leave her children behind to fend for them.”I had been widowed and had no one to come to my rescue therefore I had to get out and look for casual jobs leaving my young children behind. Things turned out not as per my expectations, my son Benson committed crimes repeatedly and he had to face the juvenile courts. My son stayed in jail for five years and I owe gratitude to the Child welfare Society took their time to visit me and helped me to welcome Benson back after he finished his sentence. I recall we had several meeting where we sat down and discussed at length about Benson’s welfare, they made me realize more that despite all I had a responsibility of taking care of Benson despite his past. To cut the long story short, Benson is back and reformed and now in school and I was helped to set up a small business which iam running upto date.”
Truphosa is a parent among the many parents in Kenya who find themselves in situations where children have committed crimes and have nowhere to turn to and end up living frustrated lives and stimagmatising the child offenders.
Lynette Okwara, Senior Assistant Director and a psychologist says that they are running a 30 months project to help stop violence against children in juvenile .The project has come up with mechanisms too see the juvenile justice system is improved with funding from European Union .”Families of child offenders have been given support to start businesses, we realized that for a child to be involved in crime is a reflection
Lucy Gitari, Chief Magistrate Milimani Children Court and also chair of Court Users Committee (CCUC ) notes with concern the challenges the children courts go through.”One big challenge we have is that the court is not friendly for children, we have no transport of this children when they come from remands , they are many times mixed with adult offenders and this is tricky at times because you find in some instances hard core criminal suspects are taken back to remand and these children are left in our hands as we beg for well wishers to give us transport. We also don’t have an independent children’s court, this is key as it will give children conducive environment where there cases will be handled well.”
Lucy says that there is no use of latest technology during proceedings and this takes very long to record proceedings of cases at her court.”We need stenographers to fasten court proceedings recording to help quicken court processes for children.”She also complains of lack of adequate data they have over 2000 files of children who need care and protection yet the process has stalled because of lack of adequate data.
Lucy says despite these challenges they have come up with the Court Users Committee which helps investigate some of the issues around juvenile justice system .”We have had magistrates trained and we do service week activities to sensitize people on juvenile justice system issues.”She notes.
Organizations like CESVI, Children Services and Probation Departments and CEFA with funding from European Union have come up with a project that will see the juvenile justice system is improved.A case example is of Truphosa Ngoli, a mother of 13 from Mukuru Kwa Njenga informal settlement area of Nairobi.She narrates how she was widowed and left with young children to take care of and in the process her son Benson got involved in crime and was taken to juvenile .”My life was so miserable when my husband died and was left with children to take care of, I had to look for casual jobs to survive, little did I know my son Benson was in crime and he was a truant.The climax came when he had to go and live in jail for five years, that was the most difficult time on my life, I was emotionally drained and thanks to Child Welfare Society who came in and helped with seed money for my small business and also helped me with advise as I welcomed Benson back home to start life from where he left.I must say that this project of helping parents and child offenders has had I big impact in my life, Benson is back to school no fully reformed and now I am a business woman who is economically stable.”
Truphosa’s story is among the many parents who have to struggle with life ad child offenders who once released from juvenile systems become stigmatized due to lack of knowledge and systems conducive to help them go back to the society.
Lynette Okwara, Senior Assistant Director, clinical Psychologist says that they are working under a 30 months project that targets to stop violence against children in juvenile . ”We are working on proper follow up of cases and have targeted over 200 children with the help of probation officers in Counties.188 children have passed through the family conferencing system, a system where the child’s family is taken through a process of meetings with children experts and helped to absorb the child back . which has proved to be very successful and one of its kind in helping children offenders get back to their families.Families like Truphosa’s have been given seed money to stabilize their livelihood and we foresee more being achieved “
Children’s Rights are a protected under the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 recognizes and makes provisions that enshrine the fundamental rights of children; The Children Act 2001 is supposed to give effect to both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and Africa Charter Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC):”
Martha Koome, concludes by challenging people ; “The welfare of a child can be secured by ensuring the child is provided with the basic needs such as shelter, education, health and other needs for the child’s wellbeing, why are our children in the streets? who is failing in their duties the family and the social protection.
