In the recent Cabinet approval to merge and dissolve some State corporations, it was also ordered that professional bodies categorised as State Corporations be declassified and denied budgets.
The Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK) was included among the batch of organisations to be defunded, though its charter does not define it as a professional body.
CWSK is an organisation that advocates for the rights of children and young people, especially those in dire and disadvantaged situations. It is not a professional body but a state agency that has existed since 1955, carrying out the core mandate of helping children with food, shelter, education, medication, family tracing, reintegration and psycho-social support among other dire needs since the hardship pre-independence era.
In fulfilling its responsibility to protect and promote the rights and welfare of vulnerable Kenyan children, the government has, for 70 years, funded various programmes through CWSK, which devotedly reaches thousands of children with its programmes annually.
In the last financial year alone, through its various programmes, the CWSK reached a total of 937,144 children across the country. Key interventions included, responding to emergencies affecting children, rapid response and rescue of children in distress, family-strengthening, family-tracing and re-integration, alternative family care, education and skills development, combating child labour, capacity building, supporting child participation, counselling, mentorship and other welfare interventions.
The Society targets the hard-to-reach children and vulnerable young persons, giving priority to food and shelter to promote school retention and attendance hence affirming the right to education for every child.
In the last annual period, the organisation undertook a pilot school feeding programme to support Day Secondary Schools in six constituencies in six counties, namely Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Nyandarua, Kiambu, Murang’a and Nyeri and special schools in Tharaka-Nithi county.
Through its community intervention targeting children in needy families, thousands benefitted in different counties of Tana River, Kilifi, Kwale, Isiolo, Mandera, Nairobi and Kiambu.
Under the CWSK’s Education and Skills Development Programme, the organisation has helped 183,905 children through education support by paying school fees and levies, alongside the provision of education materials like uniforms, back-to-school shopping items, shoes and stationery.
Pressing questions
The Society also supported over 51 vulnerable young persons to join the National Youth Service (NYS) for skills development
CWSK reached 47,627 children through rescue, family tracing and reunification services and provided alternative family care services in some of the poorest communities.
The Society has been undertaking maintenance of the ongoing Integrated Child and Family Centres (projects) at the temporary places of safety. The centres are aimed at promoting the welfare of rescued vulnerable children, in addition to serving children at the community level through the provision of health care, counselling, education, developmental needs and other welfare services.
The decision to classify the agency in the professional bracket and to defund it puts the lives of over 700,000 children under its care at a serious disadvantage and has the potential to create a full-blown crisis in communities where CWSK has been providing frontline help.
Some of the pressing questions arising from this situation include: Which institution has the infrastructure to care for such a large number of children, especially at different stages of life, including abandoned newborns? Since news of the possible closure spread, ground representatives of poor communities that have been relying on CWSK have expressed fears that their education dreams will be shattered.
It is undeniable that this decision has far-reaching consequences, with the future of these children hanging in the balance.
The Kenya Kwanza government has always been committed to safeguarding the rights of children, which is why the appeal to retain funding for CWSK is valid.
Poor understanding of the CWSK mandate could have informed this decision that has the negative potential to undermine the welfare of the most vulnerable segment of Kenyan society.
CWSK continues to implement programmes to ensure the care, protection and welfare of children as per its mandate. This is in line with the mission of the Society ‘to promote and secure the rights of children and vulnerable young persons in order for them to realise their full potential.
We appeal humbly to President William Ruto to intervene and retain CWSK in the funded brackets of State agencies.
The writer is a Trustee-Child Welfare Society of Kenya
