Four years after the President's assent brought into operation the Sexual Offences Act, children and young adults are still victims of sexual assault, particularly at the hands of parents, care-givers and teachers. Not a week goes by without the media reporting cases of children suffering unspeakable horrors at the hands of those whose responsibility it is to keep them safe from harm. In a nation that somehow found 700 million shilling to buy an office building for the Prime Minister and spent a further 320 million retrofitting it with fixtures from as far as Italy, it is unconscionable that children are still at risk of sexual abuse and mistreatment. Horror stories of children being trafficked for sexual slavery and other deprave acts have become commonplace, so much so that we no longer notice the shattered lives that are broadcast into our livig rooms on our nightly news bulletins. We have become inured to the plight of these young lives and when the dam breaks, God will forgive none of us for sitting idly by as these children's world burned.
Irene Nyamu, the Executive Director of Childline Kenya (hotline no. 116), is doing her best to ensure that children have a place to go when they are at risk or suffer injury at the hands of their protectors. Similar organisations have taken up the gauntlet to fight the scourge that is afflicting this nation. But it is the failure of our government to intervene that is most glaring. Stories abound of the manner in which parents and government officials collude to cover up the abuse of children. Worse still is the cover up that is perpetrated by officials of the Teachers Service Commission and the Kenya National Union of Teachers. Mr. Gabriel Lengoiboni and Mr Lawrence Majali, senior officials of the TSC and the KNUT respectively, have perfected the art of blaming the other for the failures of teachers, especially regarding the sexual offences many of them are accused of. The Chief Executive of the TSC is on record stating that the TSC cannot get involved in passing relevant information to the police authorities regarding complaints of sexual assault attributed to teachers it manages. The Secretary-General of the KNUT is on record as saying that the Union is only concerned with the welfare of the teachers ad that matters to do with their criminal offences can only be dealt with by the government. It boggles the mind to imagine that these two are parents. I wonder of they would sit idly by if it were their children who were the victims of these unspeakable acts.
The Law Society of Kenya is the body mandated by law to oversee the operation of the Bar, to ensure that advocates behave in the highest ethical standards in order to protect their client from the misconduct of their legal advisers. The Disciplinary Committee of the LSK is at the forefront of investigating and, where necessary, punishing the errant advocates within the ranks of the Society, sometimes even recommending their disbarment. As a union, the LSK is committed to ensuring that advocates adhere to the letter and spirit of the law, that is, the Advocates Act. Why is it that the KNUT does not seem to have a similar mechanism, if for nothing else but to ensure that while it looks out for the interests of its members, none of them should be of questionable moral character? When it colludes with the TSC to transfer teachers from one station to another, it is abdicating its duty to improve the quality of teachers and to protect the children under the care of these men and women. When the Minister for education banned corporal punishment in schools it was largely as a result of the fact that the KNUT and the TSC had failed to ensure that this form of punishment would not become subject to abuse, as it had become. By the time the Minister acted, many children had become maimed, some for life, at the hands of the men and women who were charged with educating them and protecting them in the absence of their parents. Now, the TSC and the KNUT are abdicating their duty to ensure that sexual offenders within the ranks of the teaching profession are exposed and banned from the profession. Ms. Nyamu is correct to demand that a national register of sexual offenders be published to ensure that the profiles of these animals are known and that they never ever get the opportunity to get their hands on unsuspecting children.
Since 2005, 12,600 children have fallen victim to sexual abuse at the hands of teachers, and only 600 of them have been dismissed from service. This is untenable. Mr. Lengoiboni and Mr. Majal must ensure that their organisations change to reflect the gravity of this matter, otherwise, we must dispense with heir services and find someone else willing to take action where action is needed. Children are the hope of the nation and it is our duty as Kenyans to ensure that our children are raised in a nurturing environment. Leaders in the education sector must grab the bull by the horns and declare that regardless of the role a teacher may have played in the sector, when they are caught abusing children, they must be barred from the profession for life and they must face the full force of the law. The TSC must co-operate fully with the police and other authorities by providing information on the record of teachers who are responsible for shattering the lives of the little ones. The KNUT must put a mechanism in place to investigate and punish errant members of the profession in addition to expelling them from the Union, never to serve as teachers ever again. The government must set aside more resources to ensure that children are protected and cared for when they are in school, that they receive psychiatric and other care when they are abused, and that their rehabilitation will not play second fiddle to the needs of the Prime Minister's office. It cannot be that we shall be willing to spend billions of shillings making sure politicians are comfortable when children are weathering under the grubby fingers of those whose duty it is to protect them. We must do better by our children or we will reap the bitter harvest.
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