Protect children’s rights – body tells teachers

Teachers in Siaya County have been asked to take the leading role in ensuring protection of children rights in order to reduce the increasing rate of child marriages which currently stands at 45% in the region.

According to Siaya County Director of Children’s Affairs, Humphrey Wandeo, the increasing cases of child marriages can only be contained through the intervention of teachers in schools.

He states that by virtue of being custodians of the children while in school, teachers have a responsibility of protecting them since they spend most of their time in school than at home.

The Director regretted that due to early marriages, most children have been denied the right of access to opportunities such as education.

Wandeo was speaking in Rarieda sub-county during a sensitization workshop that was organized by an NGO, Plan International, to train primary school heads and the police from the region on child protection.

Speaking during the same workshop, Plan International’s Regional Manager for Western Kenya, Raphael Aoko, stated that they are currently training the school heads because it has been established that most cases of children rights violation happen in schools.

He blamed head teachers’ laxity in providing proper leadership, for the increasing cases of sexual molestation committed by teachers in their respective schools.

The Regional Manager, who cited a recent case where a teacher allegedly defiled seven pupils in one school at Sifu Island Bondo sub-county, stated that some teachers often take advantage of the head teachers’ assumption that they only dwell on academic issues, to divert into other immoral engagements.