By Rebecca Wangari, DevReporter, Murang’a county
Key Highlights
- The government plans to phase out charitable children institutions by 2032
- The child care reforms offers alternative family or community care
- Approximately 50,000 children are in children homes
Kenya’s Children Act 2022 is reshaping child welfare by replacing institutional care with foster and family based solution.
As part of this care reform journey, over 50,000 children who still live in charitable institutions will need new homes by 2032.
The National Care Reforms Strategy (NCRS) outlines key changes in managing the children’s welfare including a gradual phasing out of the Charitable Children Institutions (CCI) thereby having the children incorporated back in the society.
The strategy has a timeline of ten years and with two years already lapsed, stakeholders are actively sensitising the public and promoting alterative family care models such as foster parenting and adoption.
Foster care
Foster care is a temporary adoption of a child and the maximum period for foster parenting is three years. The permit is renewed annually.
In instances that warrant an extension of foster parenting, the court gives out an extension of parental care for a certain period of time.
Loyd Isadia, the lead officer in alternative family care implementing care reforms, says that the ultimate goal is to ensure no child is left in any charitable home by 2032.
Isadia further confirms that they are largely advocating for foster care for these children a system that will help them integrate with the community, explore and gain more life skills.
“We are out to sensitize the community on foster care which is mostly practiced in the west and encouraging more people to embrace it,” he said.
At the National level, there are 4,021 children under foster, with a few counties among them Murang’a Kiambu, Kirinyaga, Meru and Embu, having embraced the program, Isadi adds.
Isadia further indicates that there are over 50,000 children in various childcare institutions, who need to be placed under foster and other forms of family care.
Training foster parents
Interested parents have been undergoing training on positive parenting after which they are awarded certificates to indicate that they are fit to become foster parents.
“We are seeking more prospective foster parents to support our reform agenda and provide loving homes to children who cannot be reunited with their families of origin,” said Isadia.
Embracing foster children
Alice Njeri has been a foster mother of three children for the past five years. She took the children under her care after witnessing how difficult it was for their ailing grandmother to continue looking after them.
Through the help of a few well-wishers, she managed to enrol them in school, as she provided them with shelter and food. Alice says that she has been passionate about taking care of children. The children had allegedly been dumped by their mother, who then ran away.
Alice was however advised to go to the children’s officer and get a permit to allow her to stay with them. Their bond has grown over the years and they have become one big family.
Stephen Macharia, is a prospective foster parent who has enrolled for training for foster parenting in lerini sessions. Maina and his wife have not been able to bear children of their own.
Stephen had first opted to get a second wife who later ran away leaving behind a six months old baby. He hopes to raise another child alongside his own and thus has expressed interest in foster parenting.
“I have been raising my relative’s children, but after growing up they all leave and go back to their parents and we are left alone,” said Macharia.
Jane Wanjiku the lead child protection officer under the Catholic Diocese of Murang’a, which has been spearheading the childcare program, says that they have formed a support group for the foster parents.
Wanjiku says that the church has been working with other players among them Legacy for Children and Stahili, in driving the care reforms agenda.
“We have been training the foster parents on positive parenting and have constant engagement with them,” she remarked.
With only eight years remaining to meet the government’s 2032 target of closing down all the children’s homes, officials and community organizations are calling on more Kenyan families to step forward and open their homes and hearts to children in need of family-based care.
