Promoting child rights in Kenya - Pelastakaa Lapset ry

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achieve this, the country was mapped into ten regions for purposes of regional consultations. 13 Itwas agreed that each CSO would fund activities directly in their regions of interest and use theirown internal accounting systems to manage the funds. However, it was emphasized that allagencies would adhere to the established standards of child participation, selection criteria andreporting guidelines.A planning committee for the second State Party reporting process comprising government andCSO representatives was set up at national level and it developed a national plan of work with abudget. A national meeting for key stakeholders to adopt the plan and move the process forwardwas held in Nairobi and was officiated by the Vice President of Kenya. Apart from the government,CSOs who provided financial and technical support were SCC, SCUK, Save the Children Sweden,GOAL–Ireland, Plan, CARE, ActionAid, KAACR, Child Welfare Society of Kenya, Girl ChildNetwork, Young Muslim Association, Terre Des Hommes, GTZ and UNICEF, among others. Duringthe launch a National Steering Committee comprised of government and CSO representatives wasset up to manage the process to the end .3.1.3.1 Child Participation during the reporting processAs part of the activities to build capacity in the UNCRC reporting process another 3 day workshopon child participation was held in Nanyuki in 2004. It was attended by technical staff fromgovernment and CSOs who shared experiences with regard to engagement of children in variousforums. One of the outcomes of the forum was development of a template programme for trainingchild facilitators for the regional forums.This was followed by a workshop a few months later in Machakos to train children representativesfrom all over the country on the child to child methodology for facilitating regional consultationforums for fellow children. The sessions were jointly facilitated by government and CSOrepresentatives. Topics covered included the: UNCRC; ACRWC; The Children Act; Child rights and child protection; Facilitation skills.Children were encouraged to participate in the manner they were most comfortable in. 14 Theworkshop programme and venue were child friendly; thus enabling the children also to engage inleisure and recreation. Each child was provided with a personal dignity kit to ensure their comfort. 1513In addition to the existing 8 provinces, the two largest provinces, Rift Valley and Eastern provinces were divided into North Rift,South Rift, Lower Eastern and Upper Eastern respectively for ease of operation. In addition, the 2 special national forums formarginalized and children with special needs were held in Nairobi.14One of the children had difficulties expressing herself in both Kiswahili and English but was able to express herself throughdrawings. She participated in a subsequent children regional workshop and one of her drawing was included in the second stateparty report.15The idea of a dignity kit originated from NGOs which were supporting the process of child participation and has been adopted inthe Guidelines for Child Participation in Kenya as a standard operating procedure. The kit comprises of basic hygiene products suchas a tooth brush and paste, soap, shoe polish and brush, hand towel and sanitary pads and a bag. The aim is to create a sense ofuniformity and ensure the dignity of all the children including those from deprived backgrounds, thus enabling them to participatefreely, effectively and in a dignified manner. This has emerged as a good practice and is to date replicated in many children forumsin Kenya.20
At the end of the workshop it was agreed that planners of the regional workshops ensurerepresentation of girls and boys aged 10 – 18 years from all over the country with equalparticipation of those from marginal groups.3.1.3.2 Children and Adult Regional WorkshopsIn 2004 - 2005 workshops were organized and held in all the ten regions in the country to collectviews from both children and adults. The National Steering Committee developed national standardguidelines for child participation, which staff of lead agencies in the region were trained on toensure quality interactions with children. 16 The children trained as facilitators during the workshopheld in Machakos handled most of the activities including welcoming the other child participants,carrying out registration as well as facilitating the workshops. Adult moderators only assisted wherenecessary such as taking notes of workshop proceedings.Adult workshops each lasting three days were also held in all the ten regions and were facilitatedby representatives from the government and CSOs using a standard workshop program. The CRCReporting Guidelines were among the reference material used to generate the informationrequired.In order to ensure that the views of special groups including children with disabilities and childrenon the streets were included, a special forum was organized for them facilitated by staff oforganizations working with these groups. Braille versions of key documents were produced for useduring consultations with visually challenged children. One key feature of both the children andadult workshops is that the reports deliberately set out to capture children’s voices. This wasamong the key learning points from the child participation capacity building workshops thatstakeholders had participated in. The views from children were included in the State Party reportverbatim and also in the form of drawings. 17During the regional workshops children were guided in selecting their representatives to thenational validation workshop to ensure both genders and CWDs were also given an equal chance.In total 86 government and CSO agencies were involved in various capacities in the secondreporting process. This was a huge improvement to the first reporting process. More resourceswere committed to the process with government and CSO partners contributing US $500,000 tosupport the process; and this enabled 860 children and 720 adults to participate in the regional andnational forums.The child and adult workshops also addressed areas of special concern for the reporting processunder the ACRWC to optimize on the forums and process outputs.3.1.3.3 Key milestones in the 2 nd UNCRC reporting process16The child participation guidelines were later improved on and developed as Guidelines for Child Participation in Kenya afterconsultations with children. The guidelines aimed for effective engagement with children, listening to children, children facilitatorsand protection of children – especially girls and OVCs - at all levels of participation.17One of the tenets of child participation is that views and opinions of children should as much as possible be reported in themanner and form in which the child said it.21
Page 5: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe United Nations
Page 8 and 9: The team held several consultation
Page 10 and 11: KEY DEFINITIONS USED IN THIS DOCUME
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Page 25 and 26: map for the process and a standard
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Page 33 and 34: stakeholders were sensitized on the
Page 35 and 36: in conformity with the Constitution
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Page 41: Upon finalization the Bill was hand
Page 44 and 45: Since Kenya gained independence in
Page 46 and 47: After engaging with government and
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Page 56 and 57: REFERENCES1. African Charter on the
Page 58 and 59: i) The Street Families Rehabilitati
Page 60 and 61: Annex 2:Key Non State Actors and Pr
Page 62 and 63: Annexe 3:Profile of authorsREV. AMB

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