Narok,
Wednesday May 15, 2024
KNA by Ann Salaton
Narok Children’s’ Department is in the process of enrolling all children in Children Institutions to the Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS), so as to have a database of all children in charitable institutions.
The County Children Director, Pilot Khaemba, said there are a total of 14 children’s institutions in the County with 463 children, and already 12 homes had agreed to enroll their children in the system.
He spoke in a meeting with the institution’s directors where a concern was raised on the poor documentation of children details at the charitable homes.
Khaemba said a report carried out recently by the National Council for Children’s Services, showed that most of the homes did not keep health records for the children and did not have court orders, that give permission for the children to be at the institutions.
“All children in the Children institutions, should have a Court Order that allows them to stay in the charitable institutions for a certain period. Failure to have such documentation, shows that the children are in the institutions illegally,” he reiterated.
Failure to follow the legal process, he said, many deserving children have not been enrolled in children’s institutions, while those at the institutions are those who are not needy.
At the children’s institutions, the children should be enrolled in relevant programmes such as counseling, so that they can live a productive life, despite being far from their homes.
The children should also have relevant programmes like counseling. When they stay in those homes, they have a right of getting service. But these records are not set properly.
“The inspection report showed that most of these children do not engage the children in the relevant programmes, which is very wrong,” he said.
The institutions that will not register their children will risk being closed down for not following the government directive.
However, the Director commended the homes for providing a safe haven for children whose cases are live in court, orphans, abandoned and vulnerable in the society.
“The Report showed that no children institution in this county engages in child trafficking, which is a positive note. The homes only need to follow the government directives for them to be legal,” he said.
Courtesy; KNA