It seems like traffickers have found new market for children, cases of child trafficking has continue to be rampant in the country.
A hotline against human trafficking is set to be created in Kenya,the hotline is aimed at accelerating the response provided by local authorities and the Counter Trafficking in Persons (CTiP) secretariat, IOM said.
However ,African Network for The Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect Director of Programmes Wambui Njuguna says children are lured into domestic work as house helps and herds boys, while others are exploited sexually.
“Children are being moved from rural areas, for example, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu; sometimes that is where the problems begin and because it is a criminal offence, it is not easy to always know where the children are being taken.”said Njuguna.
She said Kenya remains a source, transit and destination for human trafficking due to a myriad of socio-economic challenges and opportunities for both traffickers and victims.
Njuguna said due to the sensitivity of the illegal ‘business’, people are always wary of reporting these cases when they occur.
But when reported, police and more so those based in the rural areas are not sensitised about provisions of the law banning child trafficking.
In such circumstances, she lamented that some authorities may not “see the problem of moving children from one place to another” or may settle for a lesser crime like abuse and not trafficking.
A report by the National Crime Research Centre in 2015 revealed that human trafficking is quite prevalent in Kenya at 60 per cent in what Njuguna says is a lucrative business for the cartels involved.
Juliet Gachanja, a Nairobi based advocate and child rights technical advisor says there is a lack of standard operating procedures for security agencies meant to enforce the law.
“We do not have legal loopholes, but the only thing is lack of implementation. If you understand how human trafficking works, it is a ring. It involves a lot of people. That means to fight it, we must involve all these agencies,” she said.
African Network for The Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect Regional Programme Manager Evan Munga said it is important for challenges leading to fewer cases of trafficking being prosecuted.