Efforts to end human trafficking bearing fruit

In a recent BBC exclusive The Baby Stealers, a public hospital worker is captured negotiating the sale of infants allegedly abandoned by their parents in the hospital to an undercover journalist.

The reaction to the documentary was proof that human trafficking and smuggling have continued despite efforts to contain it. The cartels involved in the illicit trade seem to thrive by devising new modes of facilitation to circumvent measures by security agencies. 

The syndicates are trafficking and smuggling victims who majorly hail from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Sudan with Daadab refugee camp in Garissa county and Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana County as their holding grounds. Most of these are destined for Southern Africa, Europe, USA, Asia, and the Middle East. 

They are also aiding the illegal settlement in Kenya of individuals smuggled from Asia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, DRC and Tanzania. Meanwhile, the emerging trend is of trafficking networks infiltrating health facilities and protection institutions under the guise of the provision of child welfare. What to do?

The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish trafficking in persons declares that effective action to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, especially women and children, requires a comprehensive international approach in the countries of origin, transit and destination.

The measures include preventing such trafficking; punishing the traffickers and protecting the victims’ internationally recognised human rights. Consequent to this, Kenya enacted the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act, 2010.

Profiling key actors and facilitators, mapping of hotspots and common routes, the deportation of foreign nationals involved in the vice, and increased sharing of operational information is bearing fruit. 

And so are such joint efforts like training of security personnel on anti-human trafficking operations, establishing the anti-human trafficking and child protection units by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution.

Are these efforts succeeding?

Through the mitigation measures, several successes have been achieved. These include enhanced inter-agency collaboration in the fight against the vice, reduction of fraudulently acquired passports and visas through automation of security measures in the Immigration Department, successful prosecution, rescue and repatriation of trafficked victims and continuous sensitisation and training of security officers and judicial officials on anti-human trafficking cases.

One of the loopholes traffickers have used to beat the regulations is corrupt and fraudulent issuance of work permits to their victims on arrival in Nairobi. A lot of foreign nationals would be brought to Kenya under tourist visas only for their traffickers to corrupt their way through the immigration system and fraudulently obtain work permits for them. 

A review of these guidelines now requires foreign nationals intending to work in Kenya to apply for work permits while still in their countries of origin to curb the vice.

Another avenue has been the fraudulent acquisition of identification documents such as birth certificates, ID cards, and passports. To curb this, the government introduced Huduma Namba for both Kenyan and foreign nationals to ensure that everyone in the country is identified and accounted for. 

Nonetheless, factors such as corruption, inadequate monitoring, and enforcement of regulations continue to hamper efforts to curb human trafficking. Others are the intricate human trafficking networks, language barrier, and lack of interpreters during prosecution and conviction of suspects.

Despite these challenges, the ODPP has made progress in the prosecution of human trafficking cases with the progressive success achieved over the last couple of years. In 2019/2020 periods, 174 cases were registered, out of which 88 concluded with a conviction rate of 97.33 per cent.

In one such case, Yona Sabuni was accused of trafficking a minor from Tanzania to Kenya for forced begging in 2018. The 12–year-old disabled minor was recruited from Mwanza, Tanzania under the false premise that disabled children were being assisted in Nairobi.

The recruiter then transported the minor to Nairobi’s Shauri Moyo Estate and handed her to the accused person. Following intelligence and tips from concerned members of the public, Yona was arrested and charged with eight counts of trafficking in persons, convicted on three counts and subsequently sentenced to 65 years in prison in November last year.

-Dr Makodingo is a devolution and governance expert, political strategist and conflict analyst.