Stretched juvenile home exposes children to risks

By MERCY KAHENDA

Congestion in a juvenile home and rehabilitation centres has affected operations in Nakuru County, officials have said.

The only juvenile facility in the county, with a capacity of 60, is overwhelmed following an upsurge in the number of minors facing neglect cases, conflict of law and street children who require housing as they await their fate.

Nakuru OCPD Bernard Kioko said an average 20 children are picked from the streets daily, swelling the numbers at the facility. Mr Kioko said they have formed a children protection team comprising the police boss, county director of children and juvenile management, among other stakeholders, to look into the overcrowding at the facility.

A way out

“The juvenile facility is overwhelmed and there is need for all stakeholders to look for a way out of this problem. Expansion is needed,” he said. Children at the only available facility undergo suffering as the food provided and beds are not enough.

To avoid congestion at the facility, the children protection team resolved to arrest parents of street children and charge them with neglect. He noted that the system had reduced the number of street children but said they were faced with challenges of few rehabilitation centres, juvenile facilities and home care that county and national governments should establish.

Nakuru senior magistrate Judicaster Nthuku said police should stop mixing the children, saying those with pending cases undergo guidance and counseling while at the facility.

Nthuku said the police and children’s department should find different accommodation facilities for street children since it was morally wrong to mix them with others.

“Children having pending issues undergo rehabilitation process while at juvenile and mixing them with those from the streets makes handling of the two groups difficult,” said Nthuku. Police are now forced to be lenient with child offenders while the law does not allow them to mix them with adult offenders.

Peter Kombo, 14, a street boy and an orphan said he was arrested but released after spending some days in a cell with adults.