THIKA CHILDREN'S HOME FACE NEW HURDLE

The government  canceled the certificate of a charitable organisation for allegedly being involved in child trafficking. The cancellation came in the wake of claims that Thika Advisory Committee on Children Affairs cancelled the operations certificate for Karibuni Organisation Children’s home after suspicions that the foreign proprietors were involved in illegal trafficking of children.
During a heated committee meeting at the Thika DC’s boardroom the committee led by the Kiambu county director of Children Affairs Mwambi Mongare, the committee further ordered for the immediate investigation and repatriation of the organisation’s manager Luke Kincaid for what they termed as gross violation of  the set regulations guiding the formation  and operations of children’s homes.
Committee members led by Mwambi reported that the organisation has deliberately circumvented procedures guiding the running of a Child Rescue Centre creating room for mischief and suspicious activities including unrecorded adoptions being carried in the home.
The committee supported the government effort to scrutinise activities of NGOs which get money from abroad but are reluctant in accounting for funds. Mwambi said that the organisation was conducting its activities in a shrewd manner. He said the organisation had been in existence for the past three years. presented to the area monitoring and evaluation committee documents indicating the names of the proprietors, the structural design of the organisation and the number of staff to run the rescue centre but immediately after they were awarded the certificate they fired all the employees and brought in others from the United States.
Mwambi further revealed that attempts by the area audit committee to access the rescue centre as required by the Children’s Act for assessment and general evaluation of how the home is run has been futile as the proprietors have been hostile to the government officers making it impossible to give any report on how the home was being ran.
The director said that the Thika West area advisory committee in liaison with the area security officers were planning on how to rescue the children from the home adding that unspecified reports indicate that the directors of the home were clandestinely organising for international adoptions of children from the home without following the laid down procedures.
“I’m afraid that Kenyan children have been trafficked to other countries without our knowledge and we are therefore left with no option than to cancel the certificate and rescue the remaining children under their care,” he concluded.
Mwambi warned other children rescue centres that anyone trying to craftily use the children to make money at the expense of the innocent vulnerable children that their days were numbered and that the law will catch up with them and due diligence would be applied.
He reminded owners of children homes who have not re-applied for a certificate of operation as required by the recent audit report to do so failure to which the centres would be closed and the children moved to other centers.
Mwambi said that there were over 250 children’s home in Kiambu county and only 80 have applied for the new operations certificate.