Promoting child rights in Kenya - Pelastakaa Lapset ry

4.2 Draft Child BillThe first draft of the Bill from the AG’s office which was forwarded to parliament for approval in1995 was considered by civil society and other human rights groups as anti-child rights as it wasseen to “criminalize childhood”. The NGO Child Rights Coalition mobilized CSOs to oppose the Billand with support from stakeholders including international NGOs in the country the Coalitionorganized workshops, meetings, seminars and lobbying forums to discuss the draft Child Bill.Media adverts were used to highlight shortcomings in the proposed legislation. The Coalition alsolobbied parliamentarians through seminars. Thus the parliament did not approve the first draft.With support from UNICEF and in collaboration with the Department of Children Services KAACRorganized a retreat with the Parliamentary Committee on Social Welfare, Labour and Health whichwas held in Mombasa in September, 2000. The retreat was attended by 33 parliamentarians,members of the judiciary and representatives of the children sector who included lawyers withexpertise in children matters. The meeting proposed final amendments to the draft Bill and thesewere later forwarded to the AG.When the amended Draft Child Bill was taken back to parliament for debate it passed the first andsecond readings and after undergoing minimal amendments it was presented for the 3 rd and finalreading. The draft Bill received Presidential Assent on 31 st December, 2000, and was finally passedin Parliament in March, 2001, 6 years after the first draft was prepared. The Children Act finallyentered into force on March 1, 2002.Why a Children Act?The enactment of the Children Act was a landmark in Kenya as it was the first law thatdomesticated an international Convention, the UNCRC. The principles that had hitherto beencelebrated in the international norm setting forums such as the principle of the best interests of thechild became part of Kenya’s domestic litigation vocabulary. 36 It was also the first law in Kenya tobe translated into Kiswahili, an initiative of the government in collaboration with GTZ (now referredto as GIZ) and SCC. Organisations such as ANPPCAN Kenya, GCN and KAACR have developedchild friendly and simplified versions of the Act for different categories of stakeholders includingchildren. These materials have been used nationally to sensitize both children and adults on theprovisions of the Act. A Braille version of the Act was also developed in collaboration withWheelpower International and the Association of the Physically Disabled in Kenya (APDK) withsupport from SCC. The Children Act was the first law to be translated into Braille and this hasenabled people with visual impairment to implement the Act on the same level with otherstakeholders.As a measure of implementation of the Act the government in collaboration with partners in thechildren sector organized a meeting in Nairobi in 2001 to map out strategies for its implementationnationally. During the meeting it was agreed that sensitisation and awareness creation workshopstargeting children and adults be held nationally and that children offices would act as focal points.The country was mapped out with organisations committing to allocate resources for trainings andsensitisation workshops in their areas of operation to ensure children, adults and other36THE LAW ON CHILDREN. A CASE DIGEST. VOL. 1. Centre For Child Law And Policy Research. Children’s Legal Action Network(CLAN). 200732