The Kenyan child is faced with many challenges. From sleeping hungry, failing to go to school, being sexually and physically exploited to being forced into child labour.

Children’s rights, therefore, do not seem to play a role as Kenyans look into the State of the Kenyan child, and the continent’s children in general as the Day of the African Child is marked.

Take this scenario in Kisumu. One morning as he was going around the school to ensure everything was running smoothly, the headmaster of St Marks Nyabera Primary School in Nyalenda informal settlement, Kisumu, noticed a group of pupils in class four giggling as they flipped through what looked like a book.

On seeing him, the students folded it and pretended to be studying. He too pretended not to have seen them and proceeded on. But he had marked one of them, and during break-time, he summoned the student to come to his office.

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Some of the poorest countries in Africa have put in place appropriate laws and policies to protect child rights than wealthier countries.

The countries have allocated their limited resources to the provision of basic needs for their children and the funding arrangement has helped greatly in protecting the children against exploitation and harmful traditional practices.

BRAVING the cold, the women, men and children in jubilant mood crowd the humble homestead in a remote village in Western Province. 

News has just reached the usually quiet village that one of their daughters, *Nelly, has emerged top in the form four national examinations.