Gov’t promotes Kafalah as alternative child care system

The government is popularizing the Kafalah system as part of a 10-year National Care Reform Strategy that seeks to transition from institutional child care to family-based care by the year 2032.

The policy aims at raising more awareness of the Islamic family-based alternative care option for children deprived of parental care and protection.

Through the plan, being pushed by the State Department for Children Services (SDCS), families are encouraged to provide family care to a child who is separated from their families or is at risk of separation to give them a sense of belonging and identity.

The Assistant Director of Children Services Jane Munuhe said Kafala is among alternative care services which provide children with more supportive community and family care. “We have a wide range of family options such as kinship care, guardianship, adoption and kafalah (among the Muslim community) to ensure children in need of care and protection are placed within a loving family and environment,” she said at the weekend during a training workshop organized by the department in Kakamega.

She emphasized that the government has developed plans to encourage vulnerable children to be cared for within home environments, and community care rather than in Children Charitable Institutions (CCI’s ), emphasizing that this works for the best interests of the child.

“We are not telling the CCI’s to get out of the way but they should ensure that the funds they have been getting from the donors is ring-fenced and to continue supporting children in family and community and that is what we are calling re-direction of resources,” stated Munuhe.

“The target is to avoid the situation where a child grows up without love and support from a family. We are not only rights-based in our approach but also ensure that the family and community systems are reinforced,” she added.

The officer pointed out that globally, countries are fast shifting from the former system in children homes as it has been discovered that institutionalized children lacked personalized parental attention, suffered in silence under several forms of abuse and lacked practical life skills that would enable them to face the realities of life.

Even under the alternative family-based care, she clarified that it will be mandatory for those seeking to take care of children to go through the necessary registration and after training and that the children will be routinely monitored to ensure their best interests are taken care of.

According to statistics, there are 45,000-50,000 children living in about 855 private charitable children’s institutions and government-run institutions.

Kafala is the Islamic alternative care for children outside of parental care and it involves a couple or a family undertaking the duty of caring and protecting a child, essentially providing foster care and guardianship.

While Islam encourages raising non-biological children especially orphans, the child, however, does not become a “true child” of the adoptive parents. Under Kafalah, the child retains their own biological family name, inheritance rights and does not assume the name of the adoptive family.

This is in contrast with adoption which involves the formal, permanent transfer of all parental rights to the adoptive family.

Kafalah is designed for vulnerable children in varied circumstances including orphans, abandoned or neglected children, children of imprisoned parents, or a child whose parents is unable to provide for his or her care due to poverty. In such cases, compassionated individuals are encouraged to look after them as part of their spiritual obligations.

Among other conditions for taking care of a child under Kafalah, prospective care givers must be over 18 years, poses a national ID, have a certificate of good conduct, provide a recommendation letter of the local Imam and demonstrate the ability to care of the child.

Kafalah is recognised and enshrined in international and local legal instruments on the rights of the child including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children, the constitution and the Children’s Act.