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Kenya: Alarm as Coast Families Sweep Crimes Against Children Under the Rug

Published

6 years ago

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Perpetrators of crimes against children are taking advantage of a prevailing culture of silence among families in the Coast region, where a majority of such cases go unreported, to avoid prosecution.

According to authorities, despite rampant cases of abuse, including trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors, many families of victims have been quiet, preferring instead to settle such issues outside the judicial system.

This, according to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) which oversees the Anti-Human Trafficking Child Protection Unit (AHTPU), is largely attributed to cultural and religious factors.

“Coast region has statistically been silent on reporting atrocities on our children. Some have been trafficked for horrible acts and others forced to do inhuman acts, but families are silent,” DCI boss George Kinoti said.

The Nation has learnt that last year alone, for instance, no less than 200 cases of crimes against children were reported.

Countrywide, crimes against children increased slightly in 2019 where 8,111 cases were reported compared to 8,060 that were reported in 2018, the annual crime report shows.

ABUSERS PUT ON NOTICE

According to Mr Kinoti, out-of-court settlement practices and ignorance of severity of the crimes among coastal communities have seen many cases go unreported.

“We will no longer wait for those cases to be reported. We will go on the ground and get to know if there is any family hiding the cases and get hold of them so that we can prosecute them,” he said.