VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNR #4613/01 3331330
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 291330Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3691
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
INFO RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 4271

UNCLAS NAIROBI 004613 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/IL TU DANG 
DEPT PASS TO DEPT OF LABOR FOR DOL/ILAB TINA MCCARTER 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI KE
SUBJECT: UPDATE OF WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR INFORMATION FOR TDA 
 
REF: STATE 149662 
 
¶1. As requested in reftel, below is Embassy Nairobi's submission of 
information on Kenya's implementation of its international 
commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, as required 
under the Trade and Development Act (TDA), for the Department of 
Labors preparation of the 2007 TDA report. 
 
Incidence and Nature of Child Labor 
 
According to UNICEF, 28% of boys and 27% of girls ages 5 to 14 were 
working in Kenya in 2005.  More should be known about the incidence 
of child labor once the National Statistical Bureau releases the 
employment sector information collected in its 2005-06 National 
Household Survey. 
 
Children work in the informal sector and with their families, in 
businesses as well as in agriculture. Children work in commercial 
and subsistence agriculture, and work with their families on tea, 
coffee, rice, and sugar plantations.  Children work in herding and 
in fisheries.  Children also work in domestic service, construction, 
transport, quarries, and mines, including informal gold mines. 
Street children work in the informal sector. Children are reported 
to engage in prostitution in bars, discos, brothels, massage 
parlors, and on the streets. While the majority of children 
exploited in prostitution are between 13 and 17, children as young 
as 9 are reported to be involved. Many girls who hawk or beg during 
the day reportedly engage in prostitution at night. In the 
agricultural sector, girls are sometimes forced to provide sexual 
services in order to obtain plantation work. Sudanese and Somali 
refugee children are also alleged to be involved in prostitution in 
Kenya. The growth of the tourism industry has been accompanied by an 
increase in child prostitution.  Slavery and debt bondage are not 
problems in Kenya.  Children working in domestic servitude in 
private households are often victims of trafficking or forced labor. 
 Children escaping abusive domestic employment conditions in urban 
areas often become street children who must work, beg or steal to 
survive. 
 
In 2006, UNICEF released a study on sex tourism and the commercial 
sexual exploitation of children along Kenya's coast. The report 
found that in the coastal towns of Malindi, Mombasa, Kilifi, and 
Diani, up to 15,000 girls, or up to 30% of all children 12 to 18 
years, living in these areas engage in "casual" prostitution. It 
found that up to 3,000 additional boys and girls were engaged in 
prostitution on a full-time, year-round basis, and that 45% of girls 
involved in prostitution and sex tourism were between 12 and 13 when 
they first engaged in transactional sex. 
 
Poverty, the death of one or both parents, and self-interest may 
contribute to a family's decision to place a child with better-off 
relatives, friends, or acquaintances, who may end up trafficking 
and/or exploiting the child. Child trafficking in Kenya occurs 
mainly through personal and familial networks.  In 2007, a case in 
which two children from rural Kenya were trafficked to Tanzania to 
work on a farm but were subsequently rescued highlighted the flow of 
child trafficking between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. 
 
The HIV/Aids pandemic has rendered many children orphans.  The 
pandemic creates orphans and exacerbates poverty, playing a 
substantial and increasing role in trafficking in persons in Kenya. 
In 2007, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the Government of Kenya (GOK) 
was neglecting the over one million children orphaned by HIV/Aids. 
In a report entitled "In the Shadow of Death: HIV/Aids and 
Children's Rights in Kenya" HRW says the children are at a higher 
risk of human rights abuse, are forced to become breadwinners, 
pulled out of school and often forced to take on potentially 
dangerous labor that is inappropriate for them. 
 
Child Labor Laws and Enforcement 
 
Kenya has ratified ILO Convention 182.  The Kenyan Constitution 
prohibits slavery, bonded and forced labor, and servitude, including 
by children. The Children's Act of 2001 prohibits all forms of 
exploitative and hazardous child labor and child sexual 
exploitation. The law (which law?) also prohibits children under 18 
years from being recruited into the military and holds the 
government responsible for protecting, rehabilitating, and 
reintegrating into society children involved in armed conflict. On 
July 14, 2006, President Mwai Kibaki signed into law the Sexual 
Offenses Act, which specifically criminalizes child trafficking, 
trafficking for sexual exploitation, child prostitution, child 
pornography and sex tourism, rape and defilement.  For child 
trafficking, the minimum penalty is 10 years of imprisonment plus a 
fine, and for trafficking for sexual exploitation, the minimum 
penalty is 15 years of imprisonment, a fine, or both. If a girl 
under 14 years is raped, the perpetrator is considered to have 
committed the lesser offense of "defilement" under Kenyan law. The 
new law also provides harsher penalties for defilement than it does 
for rape. 
 
Additionally, in October 2007, the Kenyan Parliament passed and 
President Kibaki signed five labor reform laws that include 
important provisions on child labor. 
 
One of them, the Employment Act of 2007 regulates minimum conditions 
for all employees, including children, in all aspects of employment. 
The Act defines a child as one aged 18 years and below, finally 
harmonizing the labor law with the Children's Act.  The Act defines 
Worst Forms of Child Labor as "Work such as slavery, child 
prostitution, illicit activities or work likely to injure health of 
a juvenile - where juvenile relates to ages between 16 - 18 for 
young persons."  The Minister for Labor and Human Resource 
Development is to define those specific activities that constitute 
worst forms of child labor to be prohibited completely.  Labor and 
Police Officers are empowered to investigate child labor complaints. 
 A Labor Officer is authorized to cancel an agreement of service 
between an employer and a child in any labor (except for on-the-job 
training as per the Industrial Training Act). Children shall not 
work between 6:30 in evening and 6:30 in the morning (night work). 
 
Under the new Employment Act, children between 13 and 16 years can 
only be engaged in light work (as prescribed by the Minister) that 
is not harmful to their health or development or schooling needs 
unless it is part of vocational training.  Nobody should enter into 
a written agreement with a child between 13 and 16 years of age, and 
no parent or guardian should allow such an agreement to be entered 
into with a child.  Children of this age bracket shall not attend to 
machinery, or where underground works take place and access is by 
means of an inlet shaft or hole. 
 
Since many children lack birth certificates, and a person must be at 
least 18 to receive a national ID card, it can be difficult to 
determine whether a worker is a legal child.  The Act states that a 
Court may determine a dispute as to the true age of the child 
employed.  Where it is not possible to get evidence of true age, the 
Labor Officer may use his opinion to determine the "true" age of 
that employee/child. 
 
Any employer found employing a child in any activity not allowed by 
the Act shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine up to 
200,000 shillings (about $ 3,077), or up to (12) months 
imprisonment, or both.  If death or injury occurs to a child 
employed against the provisions of the Act, that employer shall be 
liable to a fine up to 500,000 shillings (about $ 7,700) which shall 
be applied wholly or in part for benefit of the injured child or 
his/her immediate relatives, or up to (12) months imprisonment, or 
both. 
 
The Minister may, after consultation with the National Labor Board, 
make rules providing for any of the purposes for the administration 
of the Act including: 
 
- Prescribe anything which under this act is to be or may be 
prescribed. 
- Prescribing the conditions of the employment of women, young 
persons or children in any specified trade or occupation. 
- Prescribing the age at which a child may be employed. 
- Requiring employers of children to furnish information and return 
to any specified officer in respect of such children or their 
employment or the conditions of their employment. 
 
Any rules made under this section of the Employment Act may 
distinguish between juveniles of different ages and sexes and, in 
relation to women or juveniles, between different localities, 
occupations and circumstances. 
 
Another new law, the Labor Institutions Act 2007, states that a 
Labor Officer may institute, appear or appeal on behalf of employees 
in any civil proceedings against his employer and may take into 
custody and return any child to his parents or guardian, whom he 
reasonably suspects to being employed in contravention of the 
Employment Act. 
 
The Ministry of Labor and Human Resource Development is responsible 
for enforcing child labor laws, but, according to the U.S. 
Department of State, the Ministry's enforcement of the laws against 
child labor continues to be nominal. 
 
The police anti-trafficking unit and the Criminal Investigation 
Department (CID) are responsible for combating trafficking, but, 
according to the U.S. Department of State, are not yet effective. 
The Kenya National Police are participating in a UN Organization for 
Drugs and Crime (UNODC)/INTERPOL anti-trafficking project through 
the Council of Eastern Africa Police Chiefs aimed at strengthening 
regional cooperation to prevent and combat trafficking in persons. 
The goals of the project are to develop a regional strategy, 
harmonize national anti-trafficking legislation with the Palermo 
Convention and the Additional Trafficking Protocol, establish or 
strengthen anti-trafficking offices and units, and develop 
anti-trafficking training material for law enforcement and 
prosecutorial officials.  The project is in its early stage, and the 
level and effectiveness of Kenyan police participation is still to 
be determined. 
 
Current Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst 
Forms of Child Labor 
 
The Government of Kenya's National Development Plan for 2002-2008 
recognizes child labor as a problem and calls for an evaluation of 
the impact of child labor on the individual and the country, as well 
as its implications on the quality of the future labor force. In 
February 2006, the government renewed the three-year mandate for the 
National Steering Committee on the Elimination of Child Labor.  An 
Inter-Ministerial Coordination Committee on Child Labor chaired by 
the Vice President is responsible for setting general policy.  The 
Ministry of Labor and Human Resource Development led an interagency 
review of the National Child Labor Strategy in 2006 and sent the 
policy to the Cabinet in mid-2007.  Although the Cabinet did not 
approve the policy before being dissolved for the December 2007 
general election, the next Cabinet should take it up.  Although the 
free primary education, cash transfer program, and Ministry of Youth 
Affairs national strategy are not specifically targeted at child 
labor, their roles are noted in the National Child Labor Strategy, 
and government officials cite them and anti-poverty programs as 
Kenya's most effective efforts against child labor. 
 
The GOK has mandated the Vice President's office, through the 
Ministry of Home Affairs, to spearhead the national anti-trafficking 
initiative, strongly supported by the International Organization for 
Migration (IOM).  The National Steering Committee to Combat Human 
Trafficking is chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) 
Permanent Secretary, or the Director of Children's Services.  The 
Steering Committee held several meetings in 2007 attended by key GOK 
ministries and other stakeholders, and appointed a subcommittee to 
draft a National Plan of Action (NPA) to combat trafficking.  IOM 
provided training for the subcommittee, which presented an outline 
to the Committee in October, 2007.  Agencies are providing comments, 
and the sub-committee will present a more detailed plan in January 
¶2008. 
 
Led by the Ministry of Labor and Human Resources Development, with 
the support of IOM, several ministries continued to implement a 
trafficking education, awareness, and inspection program for the 
country's 68 foreign employment agencies. 
 
The GOK continues to participate in a four-year, $5 million Project 
of Support to the Kenya Timebound Program on the Elimination of 
Child Labor funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) and 
implemented by ILO-IPEC. The project aims to withdraw 15,000 
children and prevent 7,000 children from exploitive labor in 
domestic service, commercial sexual exploitation, commercial and 
subsistence agriculture, fishing, herding, and informal-sector 
street work. The GOK collaborated with ILO-IPEC on the $5.3 million, 
regional project, "Building the Foundations for Eliminating the 
Worst Forms of Child Labor in Anglophone Africa," funded by USDOL. 
The government also collaborated with ILO-IPEC on the implementation 
of two other child labor and education projects, including a $1.53 
million regional project to provide skills training to urban youth, 
funded by Canada, and a $449,408 project to combat child domestic 
work in Tanzania and Kenya, funded by Sweden. 
 
The GOK also collaborates on the four-year, $14.5 million "Kenya, 
Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia Together" (KURET) Project funded by 
USDOL and implemented by World Vision, in partnership with the 
International Rescue Committee and the Academy for Educational 
Development. The KURET Project aims to withdraw or prevent a total 
of 30,600 children from exploitive labor in HIV/AIDS-affected areas 
of these four countries through the provision of educational 
services. In the year ending August 31, 2007, KURET withdrew 2,117 
and prevented 93 children from exploitive child labor in Kenya and 
provided education/training opportunities for them. KURET has 
withdrawn and rescued 6,495 children in Kenya 2004-2007.  (Source: 
World Vision Technical Progress Report to USDOL, September 2007) 
 
Kenya also participates in the five-year USDOL-funded "Reducing 
Child Labor through Education" (CIRCLE 1 and 2) global projects 
implemented by Winrock International through 2008; these projects 
work with community-based organizations to prevent or reduce 
exploitive child labor through the provision of education. 
 
In April 2007, the GOK declared that primary education was 
mandatory.  Parents have been prosecuted for not sending their 
children to school, but enforcement of this decision is rare.  In 
September 2007, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Communications 
Commission of Kenya (CCK) agreed to establish an emergency 116 toll 
free hotline together with an NGO to enable children and adults to 
E 
report cases of abuse, trafficking and child labor, and to speak 
with trained personnel for counseling and referral to a national 
network of service providers for assistance.  Technical difficulties 
postponed the launch of the service from November to December 2007. 
 
In 2004, with support from UNICEF, the Ministry of Home Affairs 
Children's Department started a cash grant program to support poor 
households who take care of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in 
Kenya.  By 2005, the program was scaled up to cover locations in 14 
districts in the country.  The objective is to provide a social 
protection system, but the program is expected to reduce child labor 
and trafficking.  The GOK set the value of the transfer at Ksh 
1,000-1,500 per household per month (about $15-24).  In financial 
year 2006-2007, the government allocated Ksh 56.6 million (about 
$870,770) to the program. From 500 households two years ago, there 
are now 12,500 households enrolled in almost 40 districts. The 
target is 100,000 by 2012. 
 
In 2006, the ECPAT Code of Conduct was signed by 30 hotels on the 
coast of Kenya, which is the destination of many foreign tourists 
visiting the country. The Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, and the 
Kenya Association of Hoteliers and Caterers have expressed their 
 
desire for all hoteliers and other hospitality and tourism firms to 
sign and implement the ECPAT Code of Conduct.  The Children's 
Department collaborated with NGOs to hold three workshops for local 
government officials and tourism sector stakeholders in Coastal 
Districts in 2007 to follow up on the UNICEF study and encourage 
implementation of the code of conduct. 
 
Also in 2006, the government launched a national campaign to end 
violence against children, including child labor, trafficking, and 
sexual abuse. The initiative is being spearheaded by the Children's 
Department, in collaboration with representatives of UNICEF, NGOs, 
religious groups, and the private sector, and aims to raise $1.4 
million to protect children. The government has provided shelter and 
medical services to street children who were involved in commercial 
sexual exploitation, and it established District Advisory Children's 
Centers throughout the country to provide counseling, educational 
services, medical care, and fostering to orphans and vulnerable 
children who are at risk of becoming victims of trafficking. 
 
UNICEF Kenya obtained pledges from the three leading presidential 
candidates to invest in quality education, child survival and social 
protection for vulnerable children, should one of them win the 
December 27, 2007 election. 
 
The Ministry of Youth Affairs (MYA) announced in October 2007 a 
national strategy for youth development stressing improved 
education, training and employment facilities and opportunities that 
it developed with assistance from UNIDO and UNDP.  The strategy 
proposes to invest about Ksh 110 billion (about $1.7 billion) over 
the next five years with about Ksh50 billion (about $770 million) 
coming from the government, and the rest from donors.  According to 
the MYA, 90% of unemployed youth had no technical skills. 
 
The government's free primary education program (FPE), begun in 
2003, raised the number of children enrolled to more than 7.6 
million.  However, Education minister George Saitoti said in October 
2007 that nearly a million children are still out of class, 
particularly in arid/pastoral areas and in slums, the majority of 
classrooms in the country's 18,000 primary schools are overcrowded, 
and most schools continue to experience shortages of teachers.  In 
FY2006-07, the GOK allocated Ksh 108.3 billion (about $1.77 billion) 
to education in the national budget, and raised that by 11% in FY 
2007-08 to Ksh 119.5 billion (about $1.84 billion).  The GOK is also 
considering introducing mobile schools to help increase the number 
of children in school, particularly in arid/pastoral areas.  The GOK 
believes that FPE is among its most important tools for fighting 
child labor and poverty.  The government announced it would end 
tuition charges at the secondary level in 2008, and would work 
towards reducing or eliminating other costs of primary and secondary 
education that lead to child labor, rather than school attendance. 
 
RANNEBERGER