Agency wins reprieve in child adoption row
What you need to know:
- The exemption of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, of which President Uhuru Kenyatta is the patron, has ruffled the feathers of eight other agencies.
- The organisations have sued the CS terming his order as illegal and as it may expose Kenyan children to the risk of trafficking and other forms of abuse.
A court has declined to stop a welfare society associated with the President from processing child adoption.
Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi exempted Child Welfare Society of Kenya from supervision as required in the Children’s Act in a gazette notice dated October 25, 2013.
The exemption of the society, of which President Uhuru Kenyatta is the patron, has ruffled the feathers of eight other agencies.
The organisations have sued the CS terming his order as illegal and as it may expose Kenyan children to the risk of trafficking and other forms of abuse.
The parties traded accusations before Justice Weldon Korir when the case came up for hearing on Thursday.
A lawyer representing the Attorney-General sought an adjournment on grounds that she had been unable to “get senior government officials to sign supportive affidavits.”
The aggrieved parties in their submissions want Mr Kambi’s exemption order in favour of the society quashed.
However, the society said that since the President is the patron there “is proof that it has both trust and direct supervision of the highest office in the land.”
“The society has been receiving direct government support since it was established in 1955 and gazetted for adoption of children.
“The government has been placing abandoned children on a regular basis in this society. It is unlikely that it could provide support for such a long period if the agency was involved in prejudicial activities,” lawyer Kennedy Ogeto said.
He said that the children’s agency is the first in the country to lobby for government funding. The society got Sh261 million for recurrent expenditure and Sh300 million for capital expenditure.
Justice Korir allowed the adjournment on grounds that hearing the case without all the facts would be unfair.
