Over 700,000 children set to suffer as State cuts Children Welfare Society funds

Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua, State department for social protection PS Joseph Mutari ,Child Welfare of Kenya Registered Trustee. Professor Ludeki Chweya (left) and other stakeholders before Social Protection Committee in consideration of 2025/2026 Budget Policy Statement at Bunge Towers ,Nairobi. February 25th,2025. [Elvis Ogina ,Standard] Over 700,000 children under the wing of the Children Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK) are now staring at a bleak future following the government's move to defund the agency in the ongoing re-organization efforts. On Wednesday, It emerged that the Treasury had entirely cut the funding of CWSK to zero, down from an allocation of Sh900 million in the last financial year, following President William Ruto's directive for the merging of forty-two state corporations and dissolving of nine state corporations as part of fiscal consolidation efforts. The committee heard that if government does not reverse the move to defund the society, the hundreds of thousands of children supported by the agency would be at risk of being rendered homeless, death and dropping out of school. This came to the fore during a sitting of the Social Protection committee where Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua had appeared to deliberate on the 2025/2026 Budget Policy statement. Notably, CWSK is a government agency established in 1955 for the provision of care, protection, welfare and adoption of children. It is the National Adoption Society for Kenya and the National Emergency Response, Welfare and Rescue Organisation for children. Mutua who appeared before the Alice Nganga-led committee explained that the decision to defund the agency was arrived at following a decision of Cabinet, but implored the House team to save it given the crucial work it undertakes. "I spent a whole twenty minutes trying to save the Society but there were a lot of questions that came up. It was however agreed that nobody would be losing their job. After the meeting, I also wrote to the National Treasury to avail funding...but we have to be clever on how to save the agency...even if that money came today, we cannot do the work they were doing," stated the CS. His sentiments came on a day that the Children society protested the cut in funding, saying there would be devastating consequences. Chweya Ludeki, a member of the Child Welfare Society board of trustees told the MPs that that the current population of children housed by the agency was currently 700,000. Last year, they were 937,000 but the figure is expected to increase to 1 million by 2026. Ludeki explained that in the 2024/2025 financial year, the agency received a total Sh900 million in funding from the state, Sh19 million from external donors and collected Sh2.6 million internally generated revenues. But in the 2025/2026 fiscal year, their allocation has been reduced to zero. "Without access to the funding, 206,000 children and their families will be at the risk of loss of life and they could be potential victims of child trafficking. Further, three thousand infants taken up as part of the society's rapid response could also be at the risk of death should they make their way back to the streets," he stated. The committee further heard that efforts to re-unite 2,700 lost and found children with their families or setting them up for adoption would be hampered. Further, the society supports a total 171,000 children through primary, secondary and university and a lack of funding is set to jeopardize the same. Others at risk include 50,000 children rescued from child labour and currently rehabilitated as well as infrastructure projects that now face the threat of stalling. "In light of the above, I urge this committee to continue the funding of the society for the reasons give. If funding is discontinued, the impact will be severe," added Ludeki. Committee chair Ng'ang'a pressed the CS to adopt a collaborative approach to ensure that funding to the society was restored, noting that it was unfortunate that the society would not receive funding from July next year. "Here we are not dealing with infrastructure but the children of Kenya who are vulnerable. The members here understand what the children welfare society has been doing. What now happens to the homes that are 85 percent to completion and the 700,000 children under the welfare?" she posed. "Why does the government then send children to the society if it is incapable of handling them? We need to be told what is going to happen to these children," added the chair. Kipkelion West MP Hilary Kiplang'at poked holes into the submission by the CS questioning why the Cabinet had approved the agency's defunding and now the CS had written asking for funding. "What is the purpose of taking from the right and giving to the left? It is very unfortunate that despite the society being in existence for the last 70 years, that it is being scrapped by the stroke of a pen," he said. Seme MP James Nyikal sought to know what informed the Cabinet decision to defund and merge the agency, whether a serious impact assessment report was undertaken and the legal and structural relationship between the children's department and the Children Welfare society. "What we do by law must be in the interest of our children. Did you, CS Mutua, have the children's best interests?" posed Tharaka Nithi MP Susan Nduyo. The committee chair subsequently said that the House team would be meeting with the Treasury technical committee that made the decision to dissolve the society to find out why the society was earmarked for dissolution.

Over 700,000 children set to suffer as State cuts Children Welfare Society funds

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