Tanzanian Arrested After Police Rescue 16 Children From House In Kayole
The officers acted on a report filed by a children protection officer from Embakasi Central Constituency at the Soweto Police Station
Marvin Chege 
Police in the Embakasi area, Nairobi on Monday, February 19 rescued 16 children who were held in a rented house in Kayole’s Soweto area.
The officers acted on a report filed by a children protection officer from Embakasi Central Constituency at the Soweto Police Station who alerted authorities regarding the presence of the children in the rented house.
“Officers from Soweto led by orderly officer Kayole, Duty officer Soweto and team proceeded to the scene and gained access to the said house and found 16 children in two roomed rental houses,” read a police report in part.
A photo of Kayole estate in Nairobi. /FILE
Police further indicated that the caregiver and a 54-year-old Tanzanian national, who have since been arrested, could not provide an account as to how the children wound up in their custody.
The rescued children, aged between 2 and 16 years old, were temporarily relocated to a Children’s Home in Nyando.
Detectives launched investigations into the matter with the suspicion that the children were meant to be trafficked to an unknown location.
The two were placed in custody as authorities worked to unravel the circumstances surrounding the situation and ensure the safety and well-being of the children involved.
A video seen by Viral Tea showed the children inside a police car amidst wails and ululations dominating the air.
Sections 14 and 15 of the Sexual Offenses Act of 2006 criminalized the facilitation of child sex tourism and “
On September 30, 2023, the government through the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, announced that it had planned to close all children's homes and orphanages in Kenya.
The announcement was made by Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore when she met the Staff and Children at the Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK) Temporary Place of Safety in Isiolo County.
Bore noted that the move to shut down the children's homes was informed by unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of the institutions to engage in human trafficking.
"Deinstitutionalisation of Children is the process of reforming childcare systems and closing down of orphanages and children's homes and in place finding suitable homely placements for vulnerable children and supporting them in non-institutional ways," Bore explained the programme.
The new program would see homeless or rescued children placed in government-identified foster homes, with the CS explaining that most countries in the world have embraced the idea of foster parents.
She added that the concept of foster parents turned out to be more successful than children's homes.
