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By Michael Oyier, 14th December 2023
Day of African Child
Background information
The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in children and their rights. There has been an increased focus on the children in terms of inclusion. Many from a younger generation feel that 'all the battles have been won for children participation while many still feel like children have been left behind and their opinions are never counted.
With more children in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of children’s visibility as impressive role models example being leaders of Kenya Children Assembly in different constituencies in every aspect of life, one could think that children have gained true equality.
The unfortunate fact is that children are still facing discrimination due to the fact of them being young and they are not supported fully at national level. A case example, In Kenya, Violence against children is a major issue in Kenya. The different forms of violence children experience include sexual violence, physical violence and emotional violence. The 2010 Violence Against Children Study revealed that 66.0 per cent of girls and 73.1 per cent of boys experienced physical violence prior to age 18. In the recent years, there has been a shift of boys being neglected to the extent that the laws in Kenya favours the girl child, e.g. the Sexual Offences Act of 2006.
The 2023 Day of an African Child theme, ‘Rights of Children in the digital space’ was significant to all African children both boys and girls to appreciate them, create awareness on the good use of internet, how to avoid sexual exploitation through internet and how they can save themselves by speaking out, confiding in people they trust or contacting 116 helpline number.
The event brought together children from different schools in Nairobi County, Government representatives and Civil Society Organizations to commemorate the Day of an African Child 2023.
The theme for this year was ‘The rights of children in the digital environment’’ Therefore, in line with the theme different activities took place on 16th June, 2023 at the Mathare Special Primary School in Mathare constituency. The purpose of commemorating the day was to break the silence revolving around child exploitation in the online space and also engage decision makers to increase the political priority and catalyze action for children safety in the digital space globally, nationally and at local level.
The celebrations were culminated on June 16th, 2023 at Mathare Special Primary School in Mathare. The day was marked with various activities including: dancing, singing and poetry, which were performed by different groups and children in particular.
As a result of the event the following outcomes were achieved: Sufficient information on OXSEA, calling on African governments to take all measures necessary to overcome digital exclusion especially by providing free and safe access for children in dedicated public locations and investing in policies and programs that support all children's affordable access to and knowledgeable use of digital technologies.
As part of mitigating ignorance against the children, several Organizations, the government, institutions came together to initiate conversations revolving around rights of children in the digital space.
Mathare Peace Initiative- Kenya mobilize 200 refugee children in commemorating the day. The reason behind this was that the organization realized that those kids seldom participate in such day because they lack invitation from the people. The refugee children participated from the procession till the end and you could tell satisfaction from their faces. This was actually a lesson learnt by other organizations and they promised to include them in every activity going forward.
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