Simon Njoroge’s Post

Some very disturbing news about sexual in one of the most decorated orphanages in Kenya. The level of complacency from the parties involved is mind boggling. One care leaver described her experience as follows: "The orphanage felt like a “zoo,” she said, where children were displayed to raise funds. “As long as we smiled for pictures, that is all that mattered.”" https://lnkd.in/d9y3c8Hc

"Nicholas and Mackenzie Spencer accepted the charges under a deal which saw far more serious charges dropped. They had been charged with child trafficking and torture, for which they could have faced life in prison." Whichever way one looks at this, it's gravely wrong and against the best interest of the child to "strike a deal" for such serious charges. https://lnkd.in/dm-R-wn7

Four years ago, I delved into the issue of "foster care" centers developed by the Child Welfare Society of Kenya as a proposed route for care systems reform in Kenya. This matter is back on the headlines. Then I argued that, "the key to safeguarding children lies in strict enforcement of sound regulations and presence of checks and balances at all levels and not necessarily whether the service provider is a state or non-state agency." Read my article at: https://lnkd.in/ghu6KKe Since then, Kenya has formulated and is currently piloting the Kenya National Care Reform Strategy as well as enacted the Children Act 2022. These instruments don't envisage a replacement of private with state-ran children's homes. Moreover, the statement by the cabinet secretary contradicts the official government position of replacing children's homes with family and community based alternatives. This notwithstanding, public reaction to this statement indicates a complete disconnect between the sector-wide policy position and public perception towards children's homes as a model of care. It's obvious that the public still perceives them as a vital service to vulnerable children that should be sustained rather than rethought. This suggests that the care reform initiative may have overlooked the need to robustly engage and bring onboard the general public. This is a serious omission considering the proposed model has communities at its core. Considering Kenya's robust civil space and public activism, such an overlook could potentially leave room for fomenting of popular opposition to the proposed reforms. https://lnkd.in/d62JwnfM

Lately, I've been intrigued by the growing phenomenon of domestic and transnational kinship adoption in Kenya. This isn't surprising considering Kenya's concerted efforts to reform care systems through among other strategies, destigmatization and promotion of adoption. However, therein lies a quagmire. Kinship care has not traditionally included disruption of natural family relations and secondly it has not necessarily been a mitigation for challenges facing OVC. In considerable cases it is necessitated by the need for children to access some socioeconomic benefits their parents could afford but couldn't access. Like a good day school away from home for example. This latter factor is evident in kinship adoptions as a justification for accepting the familial relationships disruption that comes with legal adoption. Herein lies the critical questions: Is kinship care appropriating the rules of the global child care and protection system to circumvent a system that seems hellbent on substituting it with exotic options like foster care and legal adoption? Is kinship adoption an innovative solution for families to accord children from their socioeconomically disadvantaged members access to the benefits of the global political economy only accessible to the privileged among them? Better still, is it a question of the adoption system appropriating kinship care to perpetuate itself, considering that conditions for kinship adoptions are often less stringent than for non-kin adoptions?

On this day 9 years ago, the High Court ruled that the cabinet secretary for labor and social protection had erred in exempting Child Welfare Society of Kenya from oversight by the national adoption committee. We went on to win an appeal against this decision. Then an advocacy officer at Child in Family Focus , this judicial review initiative marked my inauguration into the sometimes murky waters of litigation as an advocacy strategy.

Directly linking various cash transfers to ongoing care reform pilot programs is definitely a game changer. There exists robust evidence that cash transfer programs are more effective when combined with other support services. #CareReform #CashforCare

How do we explain the continued deprivation of care leavers despite their increasing participation in care reform discourse and programming? Often, care leavers are used as the proverbial boogieman to legitimate care reform. The hype about their importance and facilitated participation in discourse frequently serves as a face concealing the interest of actors. Consequently, care leaver "issues" are subordinated to reforming child care systems & the interests of its proponents. As Sukarieh and Tannock argue in Youth Rising?, “....in some instances, this leads paradoxically to the diminishing of broader social movement demands for change, reform and revolution, as what are fundamentally political, ideological, social and economic conflicts are reduced to being “merely” a youth or age or generation-related issue, in which immature and impatient youth act out of turn, or are improperly led astray by others, and consequently, do not need to be taken seriously as legitimate political actors.” But there is hope since care leaver organizing is at a very formative stage. While previously care leaver engagement has mainly consisted of select self-advocates, there is an emerging, organic and collective interest for organizing among care leavers at the national, regional and global levels. This emerging social movement has the potential to ground the political, social and economic challenges facing care leavers as an independent and legitimate development agenda, yet complimentary to care reform. On the other hand, actors need to recognize that while such a movement diverts from the current unilinear & technocratic to a non-linear & political approach (often perceived as risky & unpredictable), the resultant youth-led, legitimate & independent movement is a much stronger ally, sustainable resource and mutually beneficial in the long-run.