Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Child Traffickers on the prowl



As the number of orphans rise, criminals have formed child trafficking syndicates where they exploit them. Working with accomplices in Tanzania, they sell the children there after promising them jobs and better life in major cities, writes KENAN MIRUKA AND NICK OLUOCH
The ravages of HIV and Aids in South Nyanza has left many children orphaned and exposed to abuse and exploitation.
Perpetrators of the vice have formed syndicates in the area trafficking young orphaned children to urban centres where they work for low pay as domestic workers.
Orphaned girls are lured into the commercial sex industry by criminals who use the children’s relatives to get them and pretend to offer help.
Two months ago, two women in Kuria engaged in a bitter row over a seven-year-old girl suspected to be at the centre of a human trafficking syndicate.
Kuria West Children’s Officer John Langat said the wrangle between the two women started the duel after a deal went sour.
The girl’s mother lodged a complaint at the children’s office accusing another woman of refusing to hand back a daughter she had offered as a house help.
"She claimed to have offered the daughter to raise funds to fend for her family. It is unfortunate that she complained after realising that she had erred in selling her child and now wanted her back regardless of the agreement they had reached," notes Langat.
Sold
The officer says it took some time before unravelling the mystery surrounding the case. It emerged the little girl had been sold for a paltry Sh10,000 in a clandestine transaction believed to have taken place in an estate within Kericho town.
The ‘buyer’ was summoned to the children’s office in Kehancha town but has failed to turn up and vowed not to hand the child over to the parent.
"This case brings to fore the depth society has sunk in terms of morality despite the existing laws that offer protection to children in the country. Despite the provisions of the Children’s Act, 2001, that governs the procedure of adoption and foster care placement, Kenyans still use illegal means," added Langat.
cruelty
In March this year, children’s officers in Gucha rescued a ten-year-old boy believed to have been trafficked from Kitale into the area.
The boy identified as Emmanuel Wafula was rescued by children’s officers who reacted to reports by neighbours after his caretaker turned cruel.
The woman was arrested and later arraigned before Ogembo law courts. The boy was later handed over to a children’s home pending determination of the case.
Speaking to journalists, the shaken and barefoot boy who has been staying at the Child Protection Unit at Ogembo Police Station said he wanted to go back to his parents in Kitale citing cruel treatment at his present home.
Gucha District Children’s officer Caleb Makatiani said they were treating the case as abduction but noted that cases of child trafficking were on the rise.
Early this year, a woman was arrested in Rongo on suspicion that she was behind a child trafficking syndicate involving theft of children from Rongo for sale in Tanzania.
Some of the stolen children have not been recovered yet.
"Last weekend, a woman stole a three month baby during a religious crusade in Migori town and took her to Okumbo in Uriri District. It took the intervention of the pastor to trace the child but the suspect is still free," says child rights activist Gideon Odero Okumu.
Last year, police and children officials in Migori County launched a man hunt for a man suspected to have hatched a plan to sell his albino daughter to a buyer in Tanzania for an undisclosed fee.
The man constantly quarrelled with his wife after she flatly refused to let go of her child born with the skin condition. She reported the matter to police prompting the move to launch a rescue bid.
The woman currently stays away from their matrimonial home after her husband chased her away with their two children accusing her of being tough headed.
The man was later arrested and arraigned before a Kehancha court and charged with attempted human trafficking. The matter is yet to be concluded.
At the time, witchdoctors from the neighbouring country believed body parts of albino could be used to cure several ailments.
There have been reports of albinos being killed and their body parts mixed with other concoctions which are believed to be of medicinal value.

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