High legal fees deter adoption

• Welfare society asks prospective adoptive parents to steer clear of ravenous lawyers

Most child adoptions in the country do not meet the minimum legal requirements, a new survey has found.

This, the report says, is as a result of the high cost of the legal adoption process and the fact that it is still not fully understood by many parents.

Conducted by the Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK), the report, titled “The Challenges of Local Adoption: The Kenya Parents’ Experience and its Implication on Inter-Country Adoption”, also reveals how parents adopting children are exploited by lawyers and social workers during the adoption process.

Lawyers charge between Sh50,000 and Sh120,000 for a local adoption, and between Sh100,000 and Sh700,000 for international cases, which many deem too prohibitive.

As a result, CWSK is urging prospective adoptive parents to go for self-presentation sessions and avoid using lawyers.

It is estimated that over 10,000 children have gone through the official adoption process since 1969, translating to an average of between 300 and 400 a year in recent times.

Huge drop

However, last year recorded a huge drop in the number of local successful adoptions, a phenomenon the report attributes to the political instability at the start of the year.

“The general hostile mood in the country affected the process,” it says.

Meanwhile, the government will start taking legal action against individuals who fail to report cases of child abuse should a new Bill sail through.

Speaking in Nanyuki on Monday, Gender minister Esther Murugi said there were plans to amend the Children’s Act to enhance the safety of children.

She said such measures would ensure the society becomes more responsible in protecting the rights of the child.

“In most cases, children are sexually abused by people close to them. The proposed law will ensure that neighbours take the responsibility of protecting the rights of the child,” said Ms Murugi.

She announced that her ministry has closed four children’s homes in the country in the last four months for failing to meet required standards.

The minister said the Family Protection Bill would also be tabled in Parliament in an effort to protect girls from female genital mutilation and to stem forced early marriages.