Recently, Mai Mahiu residents in Naivasha were left with a rude shock after a mother sewed the mouth of her ten-year old son over poor performance in school.
However, it took four days before the incident was reported to the police with the minor being taken Naivasha sub-county hospital as part of the investigations.
In February, a mother in Homabay County was arraigned in the court of law for burning her 7-year-old son’s hand for damaging her smart phone worth three thousand shillings.
Ms Emaculate Anyango narrated how he tied the hands of the minor with a rope poured kerosene and set the little hands a blaze. She blamed evil spirit for the heinous act.
American couple who ran an orphanage in Bomet county are on the run after the security agencies sought them for alleged cases of abusing minors at their centre for years.
An Indian couple were recently deported by the government after being charged with causing grievous harm to their five-year-old daughter.
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These are just but a few cases of abuse that African children undergo through the hands of their parents or guardians at home, schools and rescue centres.
According to World Vision, about 150,000 children are either sexually and physically abused annually.
The abuse also ranges to emotional torment, neglect and abandonment, and child labour.
Most of the child abuse cases in the country go unreported since the perpetrators are family members of the victims, teachers or the clergy.
In its report, International Child Protection Conference 2018 indicates that sexual abuse is more rampant with Nairobi county leading.
“Most of the penetrative sexual abuse on children (22 per cent) occurred in their own homes, 11 per cent in school, and 13 per cent at the perpetrator’s home,” reads the report.
It reported that 2,683 that were sexually abused before they reached 18 years, 417 reported having suffered depression.
“Some of the reasons for the high prevalence can be attributed to: lack of stringent punishment for perpetrators having ways of enticing children, darkness in slums, shyness and lack of awareness, where parents don’t discuss issues to do with sex with their children,” says the report.
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“The findings indicate that child sexual abuse occurred regardless of age, gender, religion, residence, and parents’ marital status. Perpetrators of abuse: strangers committed 44 per cent of the assaults, followed by neighbours (22 per cent) and family friends (7 per cent). Home was the most insecure place, as most of the assaults (22 per cent) happened there,” it adds.
Lack of stringent measures to punish perpetrators is one of the major reasons why child abuse is still rampant in the country.
