Looking Back and Looking Ahead: What the Future Holds for Children in Kenya
Protecting children rights
This article first appeared in The Standard on November 20, 2024.
35 years ago in November 1989, world leaders made a historic commitment to the world’s children by adopting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), an international agreement that promises to protect children’s right. Since then, the UNCRC has become the most universally accepted human rights treaty in history.
Kenya became a signatory to the CRC in 1990 and thus upholding the commitment to fulfill the rights of every child in Kenya through its laws, policies and practices. The revision of the 2001 Children Act in 2022 enshrines the specific legislation safeguarding the rights and welfare of children in Kenya.
Kenya’s development is dependent on the country having a healthy, well educated, skilled and future-fit workforce. But the burden of poverty which Kenya continues to face is weighing down the potential of our children’s futures. While Kenya has seen multi-dimensional poverty in children reduce from 59.3 per cent in 2009 to 47.7 per cent in 2019, an estimated 10.5 million children in Kenya are still at risk of not achieving their potential in life without urgent action. [1]
34 years on from Kenya’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, some progressive strides have been made in improving child-related indicators across sectors. Despite significant efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since 2015, progress for children in recent years has stalled, reversed or has been insufficient in many countries. Inequalities between countries and within countries is a major concern. The challenges facing children are becoming even more complex, given the pressing impacts of climate change, protracted humanitarian crises & conflicts, demographic movements, technological advancements, rapid urbanization, displacement, and severely constrained fiscal envelopes, among other issues.
In terms of how Kenya is tracking against the SDGs, the country reports mixed results with some indicators showing progress, while some showed stagnation or reversals.[2] Across the 17 SDGs, overall poverty, maternal and neonatal mortality has shown improvement. Other indicators which generally improved, include access to healthcare services, basic services (water, sanitation, hygiene, and electricity), school enrolment and completion rates with gender parity attained at all levels. However, overall poverty in the rural populations, under-nourishment and general food insecurity worsened.[3]
Kenya has sustained an impressive reduction in stunting (low height for age, due to chronic undernutrition), which dropped from 26 per cent to 18 per cent between 2014 and 2022.[4] Under five mortality has also halved from 115 per 1,000 live births in 2003 to 47 per 1,000 live births in 2023.[5] But the decline in neonatal mortality has been much slower and the vast majority (70per cent) of all child deaths are still being caused by preventable diseases[6] such as diarrhoea, pneumonia (acute respiratory infections), malnutrition, anemia, malaria, measles, HIV and tuberculosis. To prevent these child deaths, we need to provide essential medicines and medical supplies, recruit, and train community health workers, improve the quality of primary healthcare facilities, and ensure zero-dose children are reached by routine vaccination campaigns.
Poverty alleviation efforts in the past two years include the Government’s expansion of the Cash Transfer Programme (Inua Jamii) from 1.2 million households in 2022 to 1.7 million in 2024. Inua Jamii caters to the most vulnerable members of society including children, orphans, people with disabilities, and the elderly to cushion them from poverty. The Government’s commitment to expand Inua Jamii’s coverage to 2.5 million households by 2026 and prioritizing poor households with children, and those with a high degree of vulnerability is laudable, considering that children comprise 42per cent of the Kenyan population. The planned expansion will not only help families cover their basic needs and improve their daily lives but will also contribute to human capital development and boost economic productivity in the short to medium-term. Sustaining this programme in the years to come is crucial to lift millions of people from poverty and improve their economic futures.
In addition, a plan to end the Triple Threat (new HIV infections, gender-based violence and teenage pregnancy) against girls and women by 2027 was launched in 2023. The plan focuses on empowering adolescents and young people while safeguarding them from health vulnerabilities and inequalities.
In Kenya, only 50 per cent of rural schools have basic sanitation facilities.[7] This makes it difficult for girls to manage their menstrual hygiene needs, forcing girls to miss school during their periods, or even leading to school dropouts. We need renewed commitments and critical leadership to unlock investments towards providing adequate hygiene and sanitation facilities in schools, including climate-resilient water systems. This will ensure schools are conducive to learning and support our students’ health and well-being.
The number of girls and women subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) has significantly dropped from 38 per cent in 1998 to 15 per cent in 2022.[8] However, violence against children remains prevalent, as nearly 30 per cent of girls and 38 per cent of boys reported suffering violence in their homes from parents, caregivers, or adult relatives.[9] Increasing the child protection workforce and rolling out the National Parenting Programme will help curb incidences of violence against children and improve the surveillance and reporting mechanism.
Education for All is the Government of Kenya’s drive towards attaining universal primary and secondary education for children nationally. In 2019, there were approximately 2.5 million children in Kenya who were out of school.[10] Establishing diverse education pathways for non-formal education and addressing the critical shortage of teachers in the Arid Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) regions will help address the needs of out-of-school children and bring them back to learning.
The Government of Kenya has legislated many new progressive laws since signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, such as, the Basic Education Act of 2013 which provides for free and compulsory primary education for every child in Kenya, including children with disabilities. The 2016 Water Act ensures water resources and sewerage services are established, managed, and regulated to give children and their families safe water for their daily needs. The 2017 Health Act aims to improve children’s, adolescents’, and women’s access to health services, thereby improving their health and well-being. These are only some of the many laws, policies, and plans introduced to support children’s development and well-being in Kenya. These normative frameworks require adequate funding and allocation of public resources. At the national level, social spending increased from 33 per cent to 43.7 per cent between 2014/15 to 2022/23 while at the county level, social spending improved from 39.7 per cent to 41.7 per cent over the same period.[11] Therefore, given fiscal constraints, it is imperative to protect budgets and ensure that investments towards children are increased and sustained moving forward.
The Summit of the Future in New York held in September this year sought to forge an international consensus on delivering a better reality for children now and safeguarding their future. It presented an opportunity for world leaders to re-commit to SDGs 2030 for children with a focus on ending hunger and malnutrition, building peace, making science and technology more accessible and inclusive, reducing poverty and inequality by removing barriers that limit children’s potential, and addressing the negative impacts of climate change.
On the occasion of CRC’s 35th anniversary, we need to remember that children represent our collective future. Now more than at any time in history, they need to be at the centre of our societal commitments and governments, development actors, civil society, the donor community – all of us - must ensure that children’s ability to thrive and reach their full potential should be at the cornerstone of our actions. Together, we all need to navigate the current context to build cohesive, sustainable, and inclusive societies. There is no time to waste towards a paradigm shift in our policy and financing decisions that impede investments at scale for accelerating progress. Now is the moment to do so, and by forging flexible alliances in a collaborative approach, let us seize this chance to reset, renew and re-double our commitments to children for a livable future.
By Shaheen Nilofer, Representative, UNICEF Kenya and Pornpun Jib Rabiltossaporn, Country Director, Save the Children Kenya and Madagascar.
[1] KNBS. 2019 Population and Housing Census.
[2] Kenya State Department for Economic Planning. Third Voluntary National Review on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals 2024.
[3] Ibid.
[4] KNBS, Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ministry of Health. Newborn and Child Health Strategic Plan 2022-2026. http://guidelines.health.go.ke:8000/media/Newborn_and_Child_Health_Stategic_plan_2022_-_2026.pdf
[7] WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. Data available at https:/washdata.org/data
[8] KNBS. Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2022.
[9] KNBS. 2nd Violence Against Children Survey 2019.
[10] UNESCO. Global Out of School Children Initiative Kenya Country Study 2021.
[11] Controller of budget, budget implementation review reports.
