Punitive laws blamed for low adoption rates
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Punitive laws blamed for low adoption rates
By CAROLINE NJUNG’EPosted Friday, March 13 2009 at 21:42
A significant number of abandoned and orphaned Kenyan children are missing out on a normal family life due to what is termed as a “punitive law” coupled with an “inefficient children’s department”.
The department, which is under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development, is facing several challenges, such as understaffing, inadequate budgetary allocations and an inadequate capacity to handle the added responsibilities in the Children’s Act of 2001.
These responsibilities include supervision of statutory children rehabilitation schools and charitable homes to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children.
Alice Makui, founder of OpenHand Children’s Home in Githurai, says she cannot remember the last time an official from the Children’s Department visited the home founded in 2003.
Ms Makui also sits on the sub-committee of the Little Angels Network, one of the five registered adoption agencies in the country.
“While there are many genuine institutions whose sole aim is to assist needy children, there are others that are simply out to make money. That is why there should be regular monitoring,” she says.
The senior assistant director in the Department of Children’s Services, Ms Judy Ndung’u, agrees that these shortcomings may be a hindrance. But she says it is a teething problem that can be dealt with – but only if the government employs more staff.
Going by the government’s recent move to brace itself against a reeling economy, this will not be happening any time soon. Early this week, the State announced that it had frozen employment in all sectors, apart from security, for the rest of the financial year.
“The Children’s Act of 2001, which was gazetted in 2005, brought on board a host of provisions which have increased the responsibilities of an already stretched staff,” says Ndung’u.
There are also vacuums in the newly created districts.
And the adoption clause contained in the Children’s Act is seen to discourage, rather than encourage, adoption.
Rose Mbanya, a family law practitioner, says that although the part of the Act that addresses adoption is a good attempt at protecting neglected children, it is wanting in several crucial provisions.
“The Act is limiting in terms of the eligibility to adopt. For instance, a single woman is barred from adopting a boy unless there are special circumstances.”
These special circumstances are not spelt out; instead the court is given the discretion to determine that they exist.
“While some view this as a way of protecting the boy child from possible abuse, the fact is that, besides married couples, the majority of those wishing to adopt are single women and there are very rare cases of single male applicants.”
The lawyer says this rationale does not add up because single women do give birth to boys and nurture them.
According to Mbanya, there are more male children growing up in institutions as a result of this provision.
According to statistics from the Department of Children’s Services, of the 653 children adopted between 2003 and 2006, only 268 were boys.
“Before an adoption application can be presented in court, the child to be adopted must have been in the continuous care and control of the prospective adoptive parent for a period of three consecutive months,” explains Mbanya.
This is known as the fostering period. Before fostering, the prospective adoptive parent must go through a rigorous vetting process that includes being assessed by a case committee comprising of a psychiatrist, medical doctor, counsellor and a representative of the adoption society.
After this there is need to determine whether the home environment is fit for the child. The law requires further regular home visits from government appointed social workers during the course of the legal adoption process.
This, Mbanya observes, is enough to deter individuals with ulterior motives, so there is no valid reason for a single person to be barred from adopting a child of either sex.
Single women
Indeed, all the children’s homes that Saturday Nation talked to confirmed that after married couples, single women formed the bulk of those seeking to adopt. Clive Beckenham, a director of New Life Home Trust, arguably one of the major children’s homes in the country, says that the home places more girls than boys.
Though many Kenyans who have adopted are unwilling to talk about it in the open, local adopters outnumber foreign ones. According to Beckenham, foreign adopters make up about 20 per cent – at least drawing from the home’s records.
But single individuals wishing to adopt are not the only ones finding the law restrictive. Individuals intending to adopt their relative’s children are for instance subjected to the same regulations that control other adoptions.
The Act further provides that only couples that have been legally married for at least three years can adopt.
However, it is true that in many cases, couples marry when one of the spouses already has a child out of wedlock.
International
But just why is legalising these unions so crucial?
“It assures that aspects such as parental responsibility over the children and the rights of these children to inherit from their adoptive parents are provided for,” Mbanya explains.
The law also provides for international adoptions. Prospective adoptive parents must meet the same conditions as their local counterparts. They also must satisfy the court that the country where they expect to reside with the child will respect and recognise a Kenya adoption order and grant resident status to the child.
A sole foreign female may only adopt under special circumstances and a sole foreign male cannot adopt at all.
But there are those who feel that this process is too stringent and therefore discourages many foreigners from adopting.
One of them is Anna Mathews*, a US national who has lived in Kenya for the last 10 years. Even though she recently succeeded in adopting a one-year-old girl, she claims it took her two years of “being taken round in circles”.
“Foreigners are treated with too much suspicion by the government-run bodies overseeing adoption,” she says.
By CAROLINE NJUNG’EPosted Friday, March 13 2009 at 21:42
A significant number of abandoned and orphaned Kenyan children are missing out on a normal family life due to what is termed as a “punitive law” coupled with an “inefficient children’s department”.
The department, which is under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development, is facing several challenges, such as understaffing, inadequate budgetary allocations and an inadequate capacity to handle the added responsibilities in the Children’s Act of 2001.
These responsibilities include supervision of statutory children rehabilitation schools and charitable homes to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children.
Alice Makui, founder of OpenHand Children’s Home in Githurai, says she cannot remember the last time an official from the Children’s Department visited the home founded in 2003.
Ms Makui also sits on the sub-committee of the Little Angels Network, one of the five registered adoption agencies in the country.
“While there are many genuine institutions whose sole aim is to assist needy children, there are others that are simply out to make money. That is why there should be regular monitoring,” she says.
The senior assistant director in the Department of Children’s Services, Ms Judy Ndung’u, agrees that these shortcomings may be a hindrance. But she says it is a teething problem that can be dealt with – but only if the government employs more staff.
Going by the government’s recent move to brace itself against a reeling economy, this will not be happening any time soon. Early this week, the State announced that it had frozen employment in all sectors, apart from security, for the rest of the financial year.
“The Children’s Act of 2001, which was gazetted in 2005, brought on board a host of provisions which have increased the responsibilities of an already stretched staff,” says Ndung’u.
There are also vacuums in the newly created districts.
And the adoption clause contained in the Children’s Act is seen to discourage, rather than encourage, adoption.
Rose Mbanya, a family law practitioner, says that although the part of the Act that addresses adoption is a good attempt at protecting neglected children, it is wanting in several crucial provisions.
“The Act is limiting in terms of the eligibility to adopt. For instance, a single woman is barred from adopting a boy unless there are special circumstances.”
These special circumstances are not spelt out; instead the court is given the discretion to determine that they exist.
“While some view this as a way of protecting the boy child from possible abuse, the fact is that, besides married couples, the majority of those wishing to adopt are single women and there are very rare cases of single male applicants.”
The lawyer says this rationale does not add up because single women do give birth to boys and nurture them.
According to Mbanya, there are more male children growing up in institutions as a result of this provision.
According to statistics from the Department of Children’s Services, of the 653 children adopted between 2003 and 2006, only 268 were boys.
“Before an adoption application can be presented in court, the child to be adopted must have been in the continuous care and control of the prospective adoptive parent for a period of three consecutive months,” explains Mbanya.
This is known as the fostering period. Before fostering, the prospective adoptive parent must go through a rigorous vetting process that includes being assessed by a case committee comprising of a psychiatrist, medical doctor, counsellor and a representative of the adoption society.
After this there is need to determine whether the home environment is fit for the child. The law requires further regular home visits from government appointed social workers during the course of the legal adoption process.
This, Mbanya observes, is enough to deter individuals with ulterior motives, so there is no valid reason for a single person to be barred from adopting a child of either sex.
Single women
Indeed, all the children’s homes that Saturday Nation talked to confirmed that after married couples, single women formed the bulk of those seeking to adopt. Clive Beckenham, a director of New Life Home Trust, arguably one of the major children’s homes in the country, says that the home places more girls than boys.
Though many Kenyans who have adopted are unwilling to talk about it in the open, local adopters outnumber foreign ones. According to Beckenham, foreign adopters make up about 20 per cent – at least drawing from the home’s records.
But single individuals wishing to adopt are not the only ones finding the law restrictive. Individuals intending to adopt their relative’s children are for instance subjected to the same regulations that control other adoptions.
The Act further provides that only couples that have been legally married for at least three years can adopt.
However, it is true that in many cases, couples marry when one of the spouses already has a child out of wedlock.
International
But just why is legalising these unions so crucial?
“It assures that aspects such as parental responsibility over the children and the rights of these children to inherit from their adoptive parents are provided for,” Mbanya explains.
The law also provides for international adoptions. Prospective adoptive parents must meet the same conditions as their local counterparts. They also must satisfy the court that the country where they expect to reside with the child will respect and recognise a Kenya adoption order and grant resident status to the child.
A sole foreign female may only adopt under special circumstances and a sole foreign male cannot adopt at all.
But there are those who feel that this process is too stringent and therefore discourages many foreigners from adopting.
One of them is Anna Mathews*, a US national who has lived in Kenya for the last 10 years. Even though she recently succeeded in adopting a one-year-old girl, she claims it took her two years of “being taken round in circles”.
“Foreigners are treated with too much suspicion by the government-run bodies overseeing adoption,” she says.
2009 Mar 13