The measure of a society’s conscience is often defined by the way it treats the most vulnerable. Kenya gets a harsh indictment over how she cares for vulnerable children according to recent statistics. A damning report carried elsewhere in this newspaper highlights challenges facing a call centre designed to help children in distress.

Established in 2007, Childline Kenya was introduced under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development to help children in trouble. The toll-free telephone number 116 was introduced so Kenyans could use it to report cases of child neglect, physical or sexual abuse and child trafficking and help trigger necessary help or intervention. 

The response has been overwhelming. In 2013 alone, the centre received 656,800 calls. Of these, 281,486 calls were responded to while over 300,000 calls were terminated for various reasons including poor connectivity. Child neglect accounted for 33 per cent of the calls, and physical and sexual abuse registered 23 and 22 per cent respectively.

In most cases, neglect happens when parents leave minors at home unattended to look for casual jobs. In some extreme cases, parents have been found deserting their children on the streets.

Some force the minors to beg on the streets and bring the money back to them. How dehumanising in a country that prides itself in protecting children’s rights!

Children are the future of any country. Stakeholders, beginning with the parents, relatives, neighbours, the society and the Government, must take up their protective role owed to children.

Turning the other way as any child suffers only complicates a challenge already facing the country.

Neglected children become easy prey for criminals seeking to recruit them into their heinous activities. They grow up hating the system and anyone they deem responsible for their misfortunes. This eventually heightens insecurity.

Studies also show that sexually abused children are likely to become abusers when they grow up. Abused children are also likely to end up abusing drugs as they try to come to terms with the effects of abuse.

It is unfortunate that majority of sexual offenders are either parents, relatives or close friends. Besides the physical and psychological trauma visited on sexually abused children, they are also infected with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and Aids. Others are impregnated, opening another lifelong chapter of suffering, poverty and ridicule.

Still others are wasting away by being forced to work instead of going to school. They have been denied the chance to be children and are often sent to farms or animal grazing grounds. This hardly prepares them for a complex future where education is the foundation of success. We must turn around the aspirations of such children, especially in poor, remote and nomadic regions of the country.

The national and county governments must lead the protection of children against predators and situations that threaten to kill their opportunities in life.

It is high time Government and individuals fully supported institutions that take care of destitute children. To safeguard our country’s future, all children must be provided with an enabling environment to explore their talents and abilities.

 Adequate funds must also be allocated to departments such as Childline Kenya to increase their capacity to effectively handle the rising number of children in distress.

Going by the number of calls received by the department, there is no doubt that this is a critical service that would go a long way in protecting vulnerable children and deterring abusers.

Adequately funding the department would increase its capacity so that all distress calls made to the centre are received and acted upon promptly.

The onus is on all Kenyans to let children be and protect them against all predators.