KENYA

What the law says in regard to children in remand or prison

I want to make clear issues concerning children held in prison or remand because it seem not clear from your reporting. The Children’s Act is explicit on how children who are going through the Juvenile Justice system should be handled.
First and foremost, it discourages the holding of any child in custody unless this is done in the child’s best interests or the child has or is suspected of having committed an offence that attracts capital punishment such as murder. Apart from preventing criminal contamination, abuse and stigmatization, the child has an opportunity of carrying on with his/her education, which is normally disturbed when put in custody.
If the child has to be held in police custody, then he/she is not supposed to be there for more than 24 hours without the permission or knowledge of a court.
The law is also clear that children should always be held and even transported separately from adults . This is aimed at preventing criminal contamination and stigma on the children. It also states that where children are held in remand, the courts should release them on bail; if after six months their cases have not been finalised, if it is a capital offence and three months for any other case. Some of the children at Industrial Area Remand facility have been there for over a year as was reported.

As with any other law, the Children’s Act will remain dead if not implemented to the letter and especially on this issue. It is fair to recognize the fact that police stations in Kenya were put up ages ago and do not have separate and specific cells for children. Currently, it is only five police stations in the country, which have separate and specific holding and processing places for children. These have come up through a joint initiative between the Government, local and international partners. The programme is in its expansion phase and aims at ensuring that all police stations eventually have separate cells for children.
The Prisons Department, under Abraham Kamakil, is correct in indicating that its hands are tied insofar as receiving of child remandees and inmates is concerned. The Department does not determine who ends up in Prison. Its work is to hold those sent to them in safe custody and rehabilitate them in the case of convicts. Above all, one measure that does not require spending of a single cent is the option of not sending such children to custody in the first place. The law allows for it and the courts should exploit it.

Mkangi Bobby Munga
10 March 2005

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