Stakeholders lament delayed justice for minors

Children rights defenders have expressed concern over the slow pace of court cases involving violations against minors saying they were taking too long to conclude.

The child rights defenders who included Children Officers and Civil Society Organisations dealing with children matters noted there were bottlenecks between the Judiciary, Police and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution leading to delays or collapse of the cases.

Speaking in Nanyuki Wednesday at the conclusion of a two-day workshop on violence against children survey and National Prevention and Response Plan Dissemination that also included a sensitization walk in the town, Deputy Director of Children Services Mwambi Mong’are noted that cases involving children were not being concluded within six months as per the Kenyan laws.

He noted that cases involving minors had many stakeholders playing different roles and therefore that could be one of the reasons they experienced delays in concluding.

“Cases involving children have many stakeholders. As a directorate, our role is to do the social inquiry for the protection and care if a child is in conflict with the law. Other players come in such as investigating agencies, the Probation Department to handle pre-bail and bonding of the child, and also we have the ODPP to prosecute the case,” Mong’are said.

The deputy director also noted that cases of witnesses failing to testify and going into hiding had greatly hampered the conclusion of the cases with some collapsing due to lack of sufficient evidence.

Executive Director Dr Helen Gathogo of One More Day for Children Foundation, a girls’ safe house for young girls rescued from early marriage and Female Genital mutilation in Laikipia North Sub-county, noted that the big caseload of cases involving minors was a concern in the country and called on the Judiciary to designate magistrates to hear the cases in all court stations.

“We are urging the Judiciary and the ODPP to increase staff so that children’s cases get a priority in court since the minors cannot hold onto the evidence for long without forgetting,” Dr Gathogo said.

– KNA