Garissa leaders, residents raise concern over increasing cases of child abuse

In separate interviews, parents, teachers, chiefs, religious leaders and officials from the Department of Child services agreed that the community and duty bearers should ensure that the rights of children are protected as enshrined in the constitution.

Benjamin Kinyua, the county’s Children coordinator said the high rate of negligence among parents and guardians was worrying, disclosing that over 70 per cent of the cases his office was handling were negligence related.

“When we looked keenly into the factors contributing to the negligence of children in this county, we realized that there are several factors among them parents who are drunkards, poverty, and poor parenting,” Kinyua said.

He said parents are so engrossed eking a living that they have no time to interact with their children, leaving minors to grow without parental attention and guidance.

Kinyua said the government and non-state actors have changed the approach in dealing with FGM to sensitizing the community on the negative effects of the practice, unlike previously where perpetrators were taken to court.

The county coordinator said this was bearing fruit, as some families, especially the educated ones, were abandoning the practice.

Kinyua added that the department with the help of other actors was also sensitizing the community against marrying their girls off at a tender age.

Ubah Abdullahi, senior Assistant Chief of Bula Mzuri location decried the rising cases of parents separating, saying the situation is worse when a couple with a young family divorce.

Abdullahi said she handles cases of school going children found loitering in the villages on daily basis. Upon inquiry, she finds the parents separated, leaving the children with no one to look after them.

“I can tell you these children whose parents have divorced and mostly aged between 10 to 18 are the ones giving us a lot of problems in terms of security.

“They snatch bags from mothers, waylaying passers-by at night and stabbing them and generally engage in all manners of criminal activities,” the administrator said.

Supkem’s Sheikh Hassan Abdi said good parenting was lacking.

He expressed concern over the increasing number of divorce cases in Garissa and the larger Northeastern.

The Sheikh said children suffer when parents’ divorce, as they are either abandoned or moved to join new families in cases of remarriage and in the process, some are abused.

“Unfortunately, this is where all the violence occurs, some orchestrated by the stepfathers and mothers. The boys are sodomized while girls are raped,” Abdi said.

He said as clerics, they have intervened by taking some children back to school and supporting them. The Sheikh added that 80 per cent of children who have dropped out of school or were engaged in criminal activities were from broken families.

Abdi said children left at home while their mothers were engaged in selling miraa are also exposed to harmful practices and abuses.

He challenged both the national and county governments to consider enlisting divorced women to the Kazi Mtaani initiative so that they can take care of their families.