Officials raid Likoni madrasa over child trafficking suspicions

Detectives from the anti-human trafficking and child protection units on Tuesday whisked away 95 children from a madrasa in Likoni over child trafficking and abuse suspicions.

The children were put in different vehicles and taken to Coast regional police headquarters for interrogation.

Directorate of Criminal Investigation official Grace Ndirangu said some of the children found at at the institution were foreigners from United Kingdom, United States, Zambia and Tanzania.

PHYSICAL ABUSE

According to a source from the child protection unit, about 20 children were foreigners and the others from Kenya. A majority of the children were of Somali origin.

“We received two cases of children being abused two months ago and have been following activities at the institution where we discovered that children from foreign countries were also being sent here.

We are reading some mischief here in between that is why we have engaged some foreign officials who have confirmed that the children are from the said foreign countries,” said Ms Ndirangu in an interview with the Nation at the police headquarters.

She said the two cases were of children being physically abused.

FOREIGN OFFICIALS

The children are being questioned by both local officers and foreign officials from the international children department.

Ms Ndirangu said some of the children had been transferred from other institutions to the one in Likoni for reasons, she said “were yet clear”.

“We have already found some cases here from the sessions we had with the children. We are yet to finish questioning them. But we will not release the children to any of the parent until they produce documents to prove ownership,” said Ms Ndirangu.

The angry parents arrived at the police offices seeking answers over the matter.

The Nation established that some of the parents were refugees of Somali origin who were guardians of the children and did not have documents showing that the children belong to them.