ADOPTION MONTH CELEBRATION.

By Tom Kimani.

The national government is spending an estimated Sh21.3 billion to ensure orphans and venerable children are raised within family setups as opposed to children homes where they are exposed to various upkeep challenges.

East African Community, Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie through the PS Susan Mochache said the investment is with a view to ensuring the venerable children remain within family and communities.

This, she said is done through government funded cash transfers and bursaries for needy families across the country.

Some of the program dubbed Inua Jamii, she said includes a scheme to cater for orphans which has benefitted from Sh9 million, and which has reached 320, 000 families, bursaries (Sh400 million), funds for venerable families, money for the elderly and persons living with disabilities added that the government has also been sensitizes various stakeholders on the guidelines for alternative family care.

The government, she said has also launched guidelines for the alternative family care which lay emphasis on family based care for children in need of care and protection.

Apart from adoption, the CS said other forms of alternative family care include foster care, guardianship, kinship care, kafaala (for Muslims), supported independent living and supported child-head households.

Others are temporally arrangements for the care of children until they attain the age of 18 years or as the situation warrants. … Every child needs a family and we need to sensitize our people on the need of the many children institutions being brought up in a family setup for it’s the best place to nurture them,” she said.

The programs, she noted that they are meant to mitigate the challenges which lead to the children being put under the care of children homes.

Ms Mochache on her part encouraged the society to embrace adoption in order to get children out of children homes, even as it emerged that since 2009, only 1,941 children have been formally adopted.

Out of the cases, 250 were handled between 2015 and 2016.

In Kenya, Ms Mochache said adoption has been done both formally and informally, but lamented that the latter which is rampant, and which leaves children exposed to future abuse and possible disinheritance.

The processes of formal adoption, she said has now been made easier and less costly, saying the process now takes six months and cost Sh12, 000.

However, to improve it (the process) there is need to register more adoption societies all over the country for ease of access by prospective adoptive parents

Currently, there are only six registered adoption societies, all expect one are located in Nairobi, making is hard from people in other regions top go through the formal adoption.

Kiambaa Member of Parliament Paul Koinange said the government should move fast to not only hasten the adoption process but also demystify the myth associated with it with a view to encouraging more people to embrace it.

In the African setup, there has been a notion that adoption on buying children, which we need to erase in our minds. We have thousands of children to need to be adopted and this can only be made possible by hastening the processes as well as sensitization.