A section of residents from the Central Region want the government to ease up on the numerous bureaucratic layers and hefty financial costs associated with the child adoption process.
By doing so, the residents said it will help the government achieve its target of phasing out charitable children’s institutions by 2032.
Participants at a public participation forum on the proposed regulations to guide implementation of the Children Act 2022 held in Murang’a town on Thursday observed that the amount required for one to adopt a child needs to be reduced from Sh25,000 to Sh10,000.
They argued it will lessen the burden on those who want to adopt a child and hence help in phasing out charitable children institutions in the next 10 years.
The participants argued that bureaucracies and costs associated with the child adoption process have seen only well-off families succeed in adopting children.
“The amount required for child adoption should come down so that even middle-class families can adopt a child. The process as it is currently has deterred many families from adopting children,” said Anne Wangechi.
The residents also called for tightening requirements for foreigners who want to adopt Kenyan children as a precautionary measure to protect the rights of the local children.
James Kinyua, a local resident, said foreigners should even be dissuaded from adopting children, noting that this can boost the war against child trafficking.
“The amount needed from foreigners who want to adopt Kenyan children should be very high so as to deter them from adopting local children.
“Also, the fee levied on children welfare societies which are entrusted to carry out adoption processes needs to be reduced, as this will help children in charitable institutions be brought up in a family setting,” added Kinyua.
The participants further supported the Children’s Act for entrusting the National Council of Children (NCCS) with more responsibilities touching on children matters.
They hailed the ongoing implementation of care reforms that will see children be brought up in family setups.
NCCS Director Ms. Lucy Wambura, acknowledging the citizens’ contributions on the regulations, said all views will be considered before drafting the final copy.
She said that with the new Act, NCCS is currently working to have a national children database, which will help in managing and monitoring the welfare of all Kenyan children.
“Currently, we have fragmented data of children, but with the Children Act 2022, detailed data on all local children will be domiciled with the NCCS,” Wambura added.
Drafting of the final regulations, Wambura said, will happen after collecting views from all regions, and public participation has been conducted in all regions except Nairobi, which will be carried out next week.
The director further noted that NCCS is no longer registering charitable children’s institutions, despite the locals calling for a reduction of the renewal fee of the institutions from Sh3,000 to Sh1,000.
“We are not registering new children’s institutions, commonly known as children’s homes, since the government wants all children to be raised in a family setup. Currently, we have about 1, 000 children homes in the country, and the numbers in the institutions are reducing as the implementation of care reforms takes shape,” Wambura explained.
By Bernard Munyao
