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| NCCS officer, Kennedy Owino |
Charitable Children Institutions (CCIs) in Busia have been urged to comply with the Children Act requirements in their mandates.
Speaking in Busia during the dissemination of the CCI report of assessment on compliance, an NCCS officer, Kennedy Owino, stated that only four out of the 12 CCIs operating in the county have been registered.
Owino stated that the recent inspection report further shows that the registration status of the four institutions had also expired.
The report, he added, revealed that the county had 363 children in charitable institutions: 182 boys and 181 girls. “It also highlighted that out of this number, only 127 have valid court commitments. However, the committals were not stamped or signed and only had court seals,” he explained.
Further details of the report, Owino added, showed that children whose relatives are known were 251, translating to 69.1% of the total number, and singled out lack of proper documentation and lack of a daily occurrence book as some of the challenges facing these institutions.
“Some were also found to be displaying the children’s information, thereby violating the principle of confidentiality, while half of the institutions had poor hygiene conditions,” he noted.
Another NCCS officer, Isaac Aming’a, advised the institutions to document the children’s details from the admission day.
“We realised that there is so much missing information in the files, and we advise that the child’s details should be documented from the day of admission to the day of exit, and the details should be on the organisation’s name, not the individual,” he said.
Busia County Director of Children Services, Esther Wasige, asked the CCI officials to be accountable for the data of the children under their care.
Wasige reminded them to have a systematic exit strategy for the children when they give them out for fostering or adoption.
The director also urged them to keep track of the children after giving them out to know how they are faring on.
“You should be able to account for the children that you have through the data. You should also use a proper exit strategy to ensure the children have been delivered to good people and in a proper way as stipulated in the Children Act,” she advised.
Busia County Administrative Officer 1, Joseph Achumi, hailed the NCCS officers for their efforts on the assessment of the situation of the CCIs and asked those in charge of the CCI to follow the rules and guidelines as stipulated under the Children’s Act.
“Let us all comply with the rules and regulations as we deal with these children because most of them are vulnerable and in need of care and protection. When we find that you are not complying, we will have to close your institution,” he warned.
The meeting brought together NCCS officers, county children stakeholders, and CCI representatives to chart ways of ensuring there is total compliance with the regulations in the Children Act.
By Samuel Barasa and Ibrahim Nanda