National government administrators have been asked to protect children and guard against kangaroo courts in dealing with crimes against children.
PS for Interior Raymod Omollo said children should be protected at all costs while at home so that they can all resume studies when school reopens next year.
“Schools are closed, and the biggest challenge for girls is being lured into sexual intimacies that may lead to pregnancy and forced to drop out of school, while some of the boys will get into bhang and other hard drugs. Protect them all,” the PS said.
The PS warned against attempts to set up Kangaroo courts in the villages to solve defilement issues, saying let the law take its course for the wellbeing of the children of this country.
“In Kenya today, when engaging with a girl under 20 years old, there is nothing like consent because the age of consent has not been reached,” he said in a speech read by Odoyo Owidi, the chairperson of the Lake Victoria South Water Works Development Agency, during the Jamhuri Day celebration in Rachuonyo South Sub County.
He said, “When people go and set up a court on the roadside and then say for this one, let’s call the mother or whoever, there is nothing for the mother that has been ruined; it’s the life of the girl child that has been ruined.”
The PS urged the administrators and parents to be vigilant during this festive holiday to protect all children from activities that can ruin their future.
Waweru Njoroge, the Assistant County Commissioner who presided over the Jamhuri Day event on behalf of DCC David Kiprop, asked the youth to look at the opportunities available in the country to bring food on the table.
He said people have different challenges depending on the region they come from, saying for some, after money, water is the other biggest challenge.
“Let’s look for the alternative opportunities available to make money and change our lives,” he said.
By Moseti Julius
