Lack of awareness of human trafficking among the locals and the law enforcement officers has been cited as a major challenge in taming the vice in Busia County.
Speaking to KNA after a meeting with the Border Control Committee members at Busia One Stop Border Post on Monday, the chairperson of the National Assistance Trust Fund. Kellen Karanu noted that despite the County being ranked among the top five counties in the vice, prosecution levels were still very low.
‘We have learnt that the level of prosecution is very low because the law enforcers do not even know the penalties to charge,’ she said, adding that there was a need to increase awareness.
Karanu said that the fund has assisted 28 human trafficking victims from July to December last year.
‘Out of these 28, 18 were women and these women were treated to labour exploitation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,’ she said.
She added that three men were subjected to forced labour in Malaysia while eight children (Tanzania natives) were subjected to forced begging in the streets of Nairobi.
Busia County Children’s Coordinator Esther Wasige said that the County is among the top five counties with the highest prevalence of trafficking in persons at 5.2% against the national average of 4%.
Wasige however noted that the County has made strides in terms of structural arrangements to accommodate children in need of care and protection.
“There is one functional Child Protection Unit at Busia police station,” she said, adding that gender desks have also been established in Teso North and Samia Sub Counties to take care of the psycho-social needs of children in need of care and protection.
Busia Sub County Children’s coordinator, Patrick Mukolwe said that 15 cases of human trafficking were reported in the Children Information Management System during the last financial year, nine being females and six males.
Mukolwe stated 22 cases of child labour cases were also been reported in the system, 16 being female and 6 males
‘We expect more cases of child labour to be reported during this financial year because we have carried out training and informed the people,’ he said adding that there is still a gap especially the need to train law enforcers and the members of court users committee border management team and other stakeholders who carry out law enforcement within the community.
He added that eight cases touching on child labour and human trafficking were prosecuted during the last financial year.
‘During the previous financial year, one person was convicted of child labour and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment,” he said.
The officer further said that there was a need to build the actors, especially the law enforcement team and other categories like community policing, to know how to identify, report, prosecute the perpetrators and re-integrate the victims.
Busia County Commissioner, Mwachaunga Chaunga urged the stakeholders to join hands in fighting the criminal activities along the border.
By Salome Alwanda
