By Rodgers Omondi, Busia
Matayos Subcounty children advisory committee has formed a technical working group to help in making interventions based on evidence collected from the community on child labor as a way of fighting the menace.
Speaking after the meeting of the committee, Matayos sub county children officer Euphrasia Agala said even though the cases are on increase, reporting has been a challenge.
“The data for our subcounty from July 2024 to June 2025 show that over 1000 children’s cases have been processed through our offices but unfortunately, we had only 1 case reported on child labor. This is why we have formed the technical working group on child labor so that we can have interventions that come out of evidence that have been collected from the community.” She said.
Adala said the group consists of key stakeholders who will work hand in hand to address issues of child labor.
“In the committee, we have the children services department, department of labor, police, director of public prosecution, ministry of education and civil societies among others. They will help in collecting data on hotspots, data on children who have been exposed to child labor and document the intervention and integrations of these children back in the community.” She said.
She further indicated that the committee will be mandated to put all effort that can end child labor including creating awareness, identifying hotspots and monitoring progress.
“We want to track progress, whereby the team will be doing monitoring and evaluation and having quarterly reports submitted to the subcounty children advisory committee. This will enable us to have clear data on child labor, enabling us to have evidence-based approaches in giving interventions.” she said.
Adala further indicated the challenge in reporting of the cases on child labor in the sub county which according to her, many reports have been made with other abuses including neglect, physical abuse, thereby sidelining the child labor issue.
Busia county labor officer Agripinah Auma, said the cases of child labor are on the increase in the county and have a negative impact on the development of children.
“The issue of child labor is rampant in our county and our neighboring country of Uganda. This is due to increased levels of poverty and most of them are in the scenario for sustainability of their needs and times of family needs. This activity is depriving the rights, education and health of the children”
She further indicated that the menace requires teamwork and cooperation from all sectors and stakeholders to help in controlling it.
“The multi-agency-approach composed of different stakeholders will help in complementing the departments with the responsibilities of children. When we want to make an arrest, we need police. If we rescue a child, we need a department of children to take care of these children. With this approach, we will help in addressing the issue.” She said
Lamel Owino, county project officer of child line Kenya said the technical group will help in coming up with techniques that will help to combat child labor.
“When a child case is reported to us as Child-line Kenya, through our 116-toll free number, the case is directed to a specific sub county children officer for response. We are also helping in mapping the service providers. The committee will help in identifying which services are provided by specific partners so that we are able to bring our strength together with other departments to respond to the cases” he said.
