Child Sex Trafficking Pandemic of the 21st Century in Kenya

Abstract

We have all seen films that portray the dark and lurid world of human trafficking defections that seem sensationalized and exaggerated for cinematic effects. Yet, it never occurs to our minds that this is happening in front of our doorsteps. Globally, children are estimated to account for 29% of human trafficking. Child trafficking involves the “recruitment, supply, transfer, harboring, illegal adoption, and receipt” of a child for commercial sex or forced labour exploitation. Child trafficking comprises the main category of trafficking cases in Kenya, and children have been known to be trafficked for sexual purposes, particularly along the coastal region. In Kenya, child trafficking happens inaudibly within the communities and families due to poverty, lack of access to education, unemployment, HIV & AIDS, and related orphans, and weak laws and policies for child protection. The coastal region’s financial dependence on tourism, which tends to attract individual travelers, may exacerbate the sexual exploitation of children. Addressing the phenomenon of child sex trafficking has proven difficult because of the presence of the use of private villas for sexual exploitation and the reluctance of law enforcement to inhibit effective child protection. The vital call to individuals, communities, and leaders is to promote a child-friendly environment that makes families move out of poverty and ignorance.

1. Introduction

This chapter treats the topic of child sex trafficking, a phenomenon that has existed for a century globally, and Kenya is not exempted. This chapter will explore the ambivalent presence of child sex trafficking in Kenya, considering the tourism industry, the poverty, corruption, cultural perception, and stigma of the victim of child sex exploitation within the family and the community during reintegration.

2. Human trafficking pandemic of the 21st century

The unusual reality seems to be trapped against humanity but no one speaks about it as a global pandemic of the 21st century. Human trafficking is a growing social phenomenon that carries serious challenges in understanding its clandestine nature and the complexity of sexual exploitation. Human trafficking also referred to as modern-day slavery is a gross violation of human rights and is an old practice found in all human societies. Historically, most of the victims of trafficking originated from Africa as far back as the era of the transatlantic slave trade during the 15th Century [1].

Today there is an assumption that slave ownership and trade is something of the past and only a matter of concern for historians, but unfortunately, slavery has not disappeared, it exists today in various forms, mainly behind closed doors. During a historical tour to the coastal part of Kenya, while researching on challenges of reintegration of victims of child sex trafficking, the tour guide narrated that the Arab slave caravan collided with African counterparts to capture and drive slaves from the interior before being brought to Shimoni slave caves, awaiting transportation. The conditions for slaves were considered to be extremely harsh and miserable. Our tour guide narrated that many died while being tortured or castrated [2].

Human trafficking has become transnational and affects every continent on the globe [3]. Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR), states, “All human beings are free and equal in dignity and rights”. Despite its persistence, human trafficking is a modern-day business that earns $150 billion annually according to an ILO report. At the same time, 19% of victims are trafficked for sex, and sexual exploitation is 60% of the global profit of human trafficking. Globally 71% of human trafficking victims are women and girls and 29% are men and boys. Children are estimated to account for 29% of human trafficking [4]. The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals aim to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking, and child labour (SDG Target 8.7).

Yet among this modern slavery is child trafficking crime affecting global society in low-income countries. Sex trafficking is a crime that is illegal in every country in the world, yet it takes place in every country worldwide. Sex trafficking is extremely prevalent and on the increase for women and girls but children make up the vast majority of victims, with sexual abuse deeply rooted in their innocence and lack of protection. A report by the International Society for the Prevention against Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) observed that Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is one of the major concerns throughout the world [5].

2.1 Defining a child

The United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child Article 1, states that a child is a person below the age of 18 unless the age of majority is attained earlier under the national law applicable to the child [6]. Convention on the Right of the Child (1990) Article 1, states that a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child.¹ The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Person, Especially women and children Supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000) Article 3 (d) states that a child shall mean any person under eighteen years of age [7]. Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Form of Child Labour (2000) Article 2 (ILO. No.182.) says the term child shall apply to all persons under the age of 18 [8]. Article 260 of the Kenyan Constitution provides an “adult” means an individual who has attained the age of eighteen years and “a child” means an individual who has not attained the age of eighteen years [9].

2.2 Child sex trafficking

Child trafficking is referred to as child recruitment, transportation, transferring, harboring, or receipt of a child using force or threat in any form of coercion, any abuse of power over the vulnerability of a child, or giving or receiving of payment or benefit to achieve permission from any person to control the child, for exploitation. The declaration and agenda for Action against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of children define the sexual exploitation of children as” a fundamental violation of children’s rights. it comprises sexual abuse by adults and remuneration in cash or kind to the child or a third person. The child is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object, which constitutes a form of coercion and violence against children and amounts to forced labour and a modern form of slavery [10]. While child sex in travel and tourism involves persons who travel from one place to another and engage in sexual acts with children.² Sex represents an important tourist attraction in many countries, as in the case of Thailand and a number of Asian and African countries. For most people travel and sex are frequently linked, even among those traveling in their own countries. This is truer for the holidaymakers;

“Sex is widely understood to be part of the tourist experience, and whether with other tourists, with local ‘holiday romances’, or with sex workers, many people expect to have more sex whilst on vacation,” (human sexuality class discussion, September 6, 2022).

3. Global overview of child sex trafficking

Child trafficking is an offense to human dignity, and typically involves violations of several fundamental child rights. The 2020 UNODC report on trafficking in human beings shows that globally one in every three victims detected is a child [7]. It also finds that there are more child victims detected in low-income countries than in income countries, and children are mostly trafficked for sexual exploitation.³ Child trafficking or the sale of children involves the “recruitment, supply, transfer, harbouring, illegal adoption, and receipt” of a child for commercial sexual exploitation or forced labour exploitation within or across borders of countries.⁴ Child trafficking is a demand-driven crime for cheap labour during periods of economic growth or decline [11]. Children who are trafficked for labour exploitation may subsequently end up in the commercial sex trade and vice versa [12]. Commercial sexual exploitation of children consists of criminal practices that humiliate and threaten the physical and psychosocial integrity of a child. These children are in modern slavery, suffer all types of abuse, are treated as sexual objects, and are deeply rooted in their innocence but lack protection. Nonetheless, it is not seen as a social problem because it only affects a cluster of several voiceless individuals who are children. The social status of children attribute to child victims explains why this crime is not recognized as a problem that needs attention.

In the last decade, there has been tremendous recognition of the growing global phenomenon of the sex trade; especially those related to children trafficked into the sex industry. The adoption of the UN Convention on the rights of the child in 1989 was also heralded as a remarkable achievement in child rights advocacy and protection. Many countries in Africa have put in place measures to ensure that children are protected from sexual exploitation. However, over the past decade, evidence has emerged that child sexual exploitation is becoming more pervasive and increasingly due to poverty, rural migration, destruction of social norms and morals, and growth in travel and tourism among other factors. Africa has a share of the child trafficking problem that exists in different types namely; trafficking children primarily for domestic labour, as child solder, for begging, or organ harvesting within and across countries and from outside the region for the sex industry and sexual exploitation [13].

3.1 Regional perspective on child sex trafficking in Africa

The situation of child trafficking in the African context is nothing new every day; children are being bought, sold, and transported. These movements take place in the child’s community, at transit points, and at final destinations. Child trafficking is a social contemporary challenge with many supply factors among them the scarcity and poverty mentality of families and society. The patterns of extreme poverty, social norms, and familial backgrounds play a role in child sex trafficking.

Paradoxically, the imperfect in the African cultural perception of the demand for underage sex and particularly among the African myth that sex with a virgin is a cure for HIV/AIDS and related orphans, and the weakness or lack of laws and policies addressing the protection and prevention of child sex trafficking. Hence, in the African context, children are seen as a blessing, thus most people aspire to have at least four or more children in their lifetime. A famous African proverb states that “it takes a village to raise a child” it takes a world to eradicate slavery” slavery is around today and it has been around for centuries. This message is as profound as safeguarding and protecting children is everyone’s responsibility.

The extended family network is very valued in the African culture, making it easy for affluent family members, friends, relatives, and the community to offer to assist the poor families in their midst. A big number of children often burdens families in rural areas and informal settlements and some parents might have succumbed to HIV/AIDS. They, therefore, tend to easily trust anybody, friends, relatives, and the community who is willing to help. Because of this network of trust, poor families will tend to give out their children for domestic work with ease hoping also that the child will be assisted to get good education outside the village setup. This being away may lead to the situation of child trafficking for sexual exploitation.

In some cases, not poverty really leads to child sex trafficking in Kenya, but also children from a background of sexually abused environmental settings. For instance, these hostile communities are characterized by a high risk of sexual and gender-based violence, high levels of substance abuse, and a lack of opportunities for education. Indeed, exposes children to endure a life of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse from families or any other adults and are forced to seek escape by running away from home. Culture has been a major factor in sex child trafficking, which does not a factor due to poverty. Mainly the coastline of Kenya practices child marriage where girls are married off when they are babies and are divorced when they are still babies and end up on the streets and prey to traffickers for sexual exploitation.

Some African countries have created a culture that perceives children as commodities that can be bought and sold with little regard for their wellbeing. In Ghana, the problem of child trafficking “child slavery” for different reasons brings back memories of slavery. A BBC documentary on this issue in February 2017 [14] suggested that children are simply given to traffickers or ‘slave masters’ by parents who are unable to cater for them or sold according to Left [15]. In African culture, the practice of fostering or child placement is the root of modern child trafficking. Out of poverty, parents become comfortable with sending their children into bonded labour as the shortest means of solving their own economic and social hardship. The traffickers are able to fulfill their needs but the life of the child who is a victim of sex trafficking life may not be the same. Ghana’s Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694),⁵ addresses human trafficking activity within, to, from, and through Ghana which is mainly guided by the United Nations Palermo Protocol to Prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in person, which is the international legal framework to combat trafficking. However, the paradigm of child sex trafficking gradually shifts toward a greater need to serve the supply and demand industry of child sex trafficking.

Many traffickers are well known to the victims because are either they are family members, relatives, neighbors, or friends. Family members entrusted with caring for the children are often the ones grooming, manipulating, abusing, and exploiting them in domestic servitude or sex trafficking. The family unit is a key path to the cohesiveness of society in addressing child trafficking issues, underlying social structural factors are on the family level. However, having a family member as the main perpetrator and trafficker may also result in many victims feeling unable to speak about the experiences, they endured due to the shame it may bring upon their families, communities, and themselves. In many of these cases, children may simply have no other trusted adults actively engaged in their lives.

3.2 Overview of child trafficking in Kenya

Child trafficking accounts for the majority 55% and 72% of sexual exploitation [16]. Some child sexual exploitation includes child prostitution, pornography, trafficking of children for sexual purposes, and child marriage. It is estimated that 1.8 million children are exploited in prostitution and pornography worldwide [17]. Kenya is an origin country for children trafficked to; Chad, France, Spain, Rwanda, Germany, Netherlands, Uganda, Italy, and Tanzania. As an end country, Kenya harbors children trafficked from; the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Uganda, Uganda, South Sudan Ethiopia, and Tanzania. In addition, Kenya is a transit point for children being trafficked from; the Democratic Republic of Congo to Ethiopia, Uganda to Somalia, and Tanzania to Burundi.⁶ The most heinous of the various forms of child trafficking is sexual exploitation where the victims are forced, coerced, or deceived into the trafficking networks.

Over the past decade, evidence has emerged that child sexual exploitation is becoming more pervasive and increasingly due to rural migration, erosion of social norms and morals, high poverty levels, and growth in travel and tourism among other factors. Therefore, there is relatively low engagement by the community and the tourism industry to prevent the sexual exploitation of children. In the last decade, there has been tremendous recognition of the growing phenomenon of the sex trade as a severe crime worldwide; especially those related to children trafficked into the sex industry. Kenya is a major regional hub for child trafficking, victims, including children who are sold into sex tourism in Mombasa.

3.3 Child sex trafficking in Kenya in Mombasa

Mombasa is one of the Kenyan coast towns, which is known as the main tourist destination with exotic beaches that attracts people for holiday. The city is strategically placed as it serves as the main tourist pivot for the coastal region. Mombasa town remained the centre of Arab slaves from the 8th to the 16th century and it has continued to be the port of eastern and central African countries. The slave trade ended but its ugly scar is engraved in part of Mombasa and other coastal towns. Modern slavery in the sex tourism industry fuels child sex exploitation in Kenya and is most prevalent in the coastal region. Kenya has a share of the child trafficking problem that exists in different types namely; trafficking children primarily for domestic labour within and across countries and from outside the region for the sex industry and sexual exploitation [18].

Parents from low income are approached directly in the community or via social media with offers of work in exchange for payment of education. Child prostitution is slowly becoming acceptable in the Mombasa region of Kenya. One of the media reported that there could be as many as 100,000 child sex workers a distributing figure that has turned the coastal region into the world’s hub for child sex tourism in Kenya [19]. It is also estimated that more than 20,000 children are trafficked annually for rampant prostitution, especially on the coast, which is a “hot” sex tourism destination with private villas and guest houses dotted along the Coast [20].

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya (Article 53) recognizes the need for all children to be protected from abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, all forms of violence, inhumane treatment and punishment, and hazardous cultural labour. In the year 2009, the US Department of State reported that Kenyan children were trafficked for various domestic and agricultural activities including herding cattle, street begging, working in recreational establishments, and prostitution, as well as involvement in the sex tourist sector in the coastal region. Further, trafficking for sexual purposes often involves the migration of children from the upcountry region to the coastal region [21] for both the supply and demand required to grow the child trafficking industry. Mombasa sex tourism is timely between July to December, which is the highest pick season for tourists in Kenya. Children are groomed and targeted online for sex and forced to work in sex parlors. Other are given to adults both local and foreigners who are seeking to rekindle their sexual lives by having sex with children, who are perceived to be free from HIV and other diseases. The price for young girls between 10 and 15 years, who are sold for sex with a tourist in Mombasa, is $600 (54, 000), but boys are trafficked into sex tourism as well, whereas others engage in sex tourism as a means to an end” [22].

It is worth noting that many child sex workers have moved to the coast from other parts of the country and have often been forced into sex work even before they arrive.

Faith was nine years not her real name when she was trafficked from the northern part of Kenya to Mombasa for domestic work by a friend of her mother. Their journey took one week, and each day she was being sexually abused by a different man. Her mother’s friend told her that she was preparing her for a relationship with a white man. When she arrived in Mombasa, she was forced to start sex work. She was later rescued by a good Samaritan on the beach while she was on the run and taken to a rescue shelter.

Trafficked children are sexually exploited by people working in Khat (mild narcotic) cultivation areas [23]. Children are trafficked in the sex industry, and the production of child pornography, adoptions, or organs, has international dimensions [24]. Another well-known form of Online Child Sex Exploitation (OCSE) includes online grooming, live streaming of child sexual abuse, and the production and distribution of child sexual abuse materials for offenders overseas [25]. Despite the Kenya law that inhibits child trafficking, another distributing portion of trafficked children are newborn babies whose cases go unaddressed and unsolved by Kenyan authorities [26]. Babies are trafficked through connections between Kenyan and foreign, where the police do not take seriously this crime [27]. The level and acceptance of sexual exploitation of children in the coastal areas put all children in Kenya at risk. It reflects a fundamental breakdown of families and communities, and a failure of the authority to provide protection to children and to prosecute those responsible for promoting and profiting from child sex work. Though coastal communities are among the poorest segment group in Kenya, the lucrative tourism industry has failed to deliver economic benefits and employment for the host communities and this has exacerbated and increased the vulnerability of children to sexual exploitation.

Child sex tourism and commercial sexual exploitation of children consist of criminal practices that demean and threaten the physical and psychological integrity of children. Child sex trafficking can have a devastating impact on children including long-lasting trauma, sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancies and abortions, and mental health problems, such as depression and suicidal ideation. The declaration and Agendas for Action Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children is a groundbreaking instrument that defines the commercial sexual exploitation of children as” a fundamental violation of children’s rights. …the child is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object [28].

4. The challenge of addressing child sex trafficking in Kenya

Trafficking in human beings despite a modern-day legal issue has a lengthy political and legal history. There is a lack of sufficient, relevant data on sex trafficking which makes it harder to measure and track the scale of the problem and develop effective responses. Therefore, social protection mechanisms currently in place are inadequate when it comes to preventing or addressing the vulnerabilities that expose women and girls to trafficking for sexual exploitation in the first place. Technological advances, in particular, the Internet and mobile devices have facilitated the sex trafficking of children by providing a convenient worldwide marketing channel. Individuals can now use websites and social media to advertise, schedule, and purchase sexual encounters with minors.

Due to the endemic socio-economic problem faced by Kenyan children, they are not able to fully realize their constitutional protections. Other challenging factors that lead to child sex trafficking are African poverty, armed conflicts, and instability, as well as traditional practices, such as early marriages, female genital mutilation, and the vulnerability of families who have little social and legal protection. However, conviction rates for trafficking for sexual exploitation remain low amid challenges such as underreporting and few prosecutions [29]. Kenya has ratified and acceded to various international instruments that seek to address child trafficking and protect the best interest of the child.

4.1 Social stigma during the process of reintegration

The experience of child sex trafficking does not always stop when trafficking ends, many victims continue to suffer the harmful effects of trafficking, and face additional and evolving long after they have left the trafficking situation. Child sex trafficking experiences affect the victim’s well-being and create tension and emotional problems in their relationships and interactions with family, community, and wider society. Reintegration efforts hence need to consider and address the social stigma impact on victims of child sex trafficking at individual, family, community, and structural levels.

Children trafficked for sexual exploitation experience social stigma in the family and community as well as experience shame from their past life. Stigma is a social construct that varies from one community to another. Goffman defines stigma as “an undesirable or discrediting attribute that an individual possesses, thus reducing that individual’s status in the eyes of society [30].” Social Stigma is a widely used term to explain the feelings and experiences of shame due to different physical deformities or negative attitudes and behaviors [31]. For survivors of sexual trafficking, the shame and isolation that follow can be divesting.

In many African cultures, the association with the sex industry is highly stigmatized where the children end up losing their identity by being placed in an institution or adopted into a family. The individual or social stigma is often marked with shame, disgrace, reproach, or even a strain on a person’s good reputation. Therefore, the concept of social stigma theory explains why survivors of child sex trafficking are faced with stigmatization, humiliation, and discrimination by family and society, as well as their experience of shame. Besides, consideration of child rights is authoritative to ensure that the rights of each child receiving and needing reintegration support are not to be negotiated in any way. The family unit is a key path to the cohesiveness of society in addressing child trafficking issues, underlying social structural factors are on the family level. Reintegration of trafficked children is often a difficult, complex, and long-term process, which lies in the fact that it is different for each child and it involves not only the survivor but also the family, community, environment, and culture within which the process is taking place. The actual handing over of survivors of a trafficked child into the families and communities is one of the major challenges. The problems such as; stigma, rejection devaluing their self-esteem and shame, and self-loss of identity. However, the children anticipated these negative approaches because being into ‘sexual exploitation or prostitution’ makes their lives too difficult upon their return to their families and communities.

Burkitt depicted that most victims are mainly concerned with giving an understanding of questions such as “where do they go, who they are and how to disclose themselves to society” due to their trauma experiences, some children find it hard to re-connect their past and the present, especially the young ones [32]. Some communities believe that trafficked children should not expose themselves to the public because of hate and disgust in society and that they bring social evil from their past work in the sex trade. The stigma attached to the children who are victims of trafficking, and particularly to any association with sexual exploitation, is significant for individuals, families, and communities and can have severe consequences, seriously impeding their recovery and reintegration. Besides, fear and shame often lead many victims to remain silent about their experiences of abuse and are blocked by fear to warn others who might be vulnerable to trafficking. The children who were involved in prostitution, risk rejection, isolation, and being labeled as prostitutes, and could be easily attacked, or even murdered by the family or community for the “scandal”, they have brought upon their families and society [33].

Similarly, trafficked children for ritual cleansing, are potential HIV carriers and are likely to face negative stereotypes in the community leading to double stigmatization as well as rejection or refer as a witch who is supposed to be put on the blaze. This is related to values, attitudes, and mindsets within the families and the communities because the local culturally dominant values systems and moral code, hold negative views and attitudes toward child victims of sexual exploitation to work to support their return. It is important to involve and educate the family and the community in participation in the reintegration process since the family members bear the burden of social stigmatization as well. Therefore, the family and the community require an understanding that survivor of child sexual exploitation needs homecoming acceptance since they still carry with them the stigma of shame from their experiences.

4.2 Corruption and child sex trafficking in Kenya

Corruption is worse than sexual exploitation or prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual; the former invariably endangers the morals of an entire country. Corruption is presently one of the major challenges facing the human race. The world over, corruption is increasingly being seen as a threat to human existence to the extent that some commentators have called for it to be recognized as a ‘crime against humanity.

Kenya is a regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa but has been hampered by corruption. In Kenya, corruption has always existed in different forms and is not determined by political or geographical. It exploits the human person for selfish interests and results in gross injustice and human rights abuse. Kenya ranked 18th out of 180 corruption perception index in 2021. Kenya has adopted specific penalties against trafficking in children in the counter-trafficking in person Act 2010. However, there is still a gap when addressing crime while ensuring the protection of victims. The challenge remains because the number of trafficked children is still rising steeply [34].

Trafficking in human beings despite being a modern-day legal issue has a lengthy political and legal history [35]. Corruption in public officials linked to the phenomenon of trafficking for purpose of sexual exploitation can take place along the entire criminal chain at the place of origin or recruitment of the victim, during transit and at the destination, but also within the justice and victims protection systems. Forgery and criminal association, the distraction among these phenomena is not clear. Corruption in sectors of the Kenyan government perpetuates traffickers’ ability to obtain fraudulent identity documents from complicit government officials. The opportunity for corruption takes place in the trafficking chain, in the criminal justice, and during the protection and support of victims or survivors. Since a child, trafficking is connected to crimes such as illegal child, and parent/guardian immigration. Corruption plays a part in facilitating the trafficking process. Most of the trafficked children reported cases to indicate that government participation and complicity are involved.

In November 2020, the BBC Africa Eye brought to light a baby-stealing syndicate in Kenya after a year of investigation. The syndicate of stolen babies from poor and homeless women, primarily single mothers who lived in informal settlements. This criminal enterprise benefited financially from snatching many children of their mothers. A baby girl fetched $500 while a baby boy fetched $ 750 in the market. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ix5jbCmiDU [36]. Bureaucrats accept bribes from traffickers in return for allowing them to cross the border, get forgotten passports, or, even forged child birth certificates to allow them entry into the country. Since child trafficking is often linked with lucrative crime activity and corruption, it is hard to estimate how many children suffer, but trafficking and exploitation are an increasing risk as more children around the world live in slavery.

5. Instruments in Kenya addressing child trafficking in Kenya

The Palermo Protocol states, that any child who has been moved from their home environment and taken to another environment where rights are infringed as stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child (UNCRC), the Africa Centre on the Rights and welfare of the Child (ACRWC) has discussed the trafficked child [37]. Kenya has a robust legal framework which includes the Constitution of Kenya (2010), and the Counter Trafficking in Persons Act (2010) that prescribes a jail term of not less than thirty years imprisonment or a fine of not less than thirty million (KSH) or both and upon conviction, to imprisonment for life [38]. The Act makes a provision for the deterrence and fighting of trafficking in children by protecting victims and penalizing perpetrators.

The Constitution provides that children are entitled to all basic needs and protection from all forms of violence, and the right not to be detrained unless for the shortest appropriate time.⁷ Further, it stipulates, “[a] child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child.” Chapter 4 and the children Act, 2001⁸, also considered a child to have been trafficked if the child has been subjected to exploitation and cannot enjoy the right of being a child and the Kenya Counter-Trafficking in Person Act 2010 has been put in place to address issues of human trafficking. Article 53 recognizes the need for all children to be protected from abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, all forms of violence, inhumane treatment and punishment, and hazardous cultural labour.⁹ Article 53, 1 (d)) expounded in the Children’s Act 2001 to address sexual exploitation, harmful cultural practices, and trafficking of children thus safeguarding the welfare of the children. The Employment Act 2007 makes a provision for shielding children from exposure to child labour and trafficking. The penal code in Section 256 outlaws the abduction or kidnapping of children under fourteen years to steal it. Subsequently, the Sexual Offenses Act 2006 criminalizes CSEC (Article 15), child sex tourism (article 14), and Child Pornography (Article 16). In addition, the Ministry of Labour and Social protection vowed to decisively deal with child trafficking in Kenya [39].

Other international laws and policies related to child trafficking in Kenya included: the immigration Act 1984, Panel Code 1885, Employment policy, Adoption guideline, Vision 2030 children’s policy, and draft national policy on orphans and vulnerable children. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was adopted on 1989 and Kenya acceded on 30 July 1990, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) (Palermo Protocol) was adopted on 2000, and Kenya acceded to 5 January 2005). The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) 1990. The UNCRC was the sort to address commercial sex exploitation, which resulted in the first world congress on the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) held in Sweden (1996), from which Kenya developed its “National Plan of Action Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of children in Kenya” [40]. Despite the protection of children through ratification of international legal instruments in Kenya, the number of children victims of trafficking is soaring. These laws are not comprehensive in curbing the vise but they care about the various forms of exploitation in child trafficking.

6. Conclusion

Human trafficking is a horrific crime against the basic dignity and rights of the human person and all efforts must be expended to end it. It is hard to imagine that, in the 21st century, the slavery problem is far more extensive as human beings are exploited in the sex industry and other industries against their will. We still have much to learn from the history of early slavery to enfold the new history of 21st Century modern slavery. SDG: 16: aim to reduce all forms of violence and deaths caused by that violence and focus on ending the abuse, exploitation, torture, and trafficking of children.

Kenya is among the friendliest nations in child protection laws and has been instrumental in promoting regional collaboration in the fight against child trafficking. Child sex trafficking should not be addressed from a point of crime control perspective but rather from child rights and the interest of the child perspective. Child sex trafficking needs a more holistic and sensitive approach and policies that incorporate child protection policies that are responsive to an increase in the commercial sex industry, and international visitors who are involved in child sex tourism. Both national and international bodies need to pass policies and laws that prevent the demand for child sex trafficking instead of the supply. Lack of awareness in communities, among vulnerable children and their families, raises the risk of children being trafficked for exploitation. Lack of education also affects the child’s vulnerability to trafficking and parents who lack education are more likely to not fully understand their rights and seek opportunities elsewhere.

One of the possible points that will make the eradication of child sex trafficking will depend on how the underpinning causes of demand for child sexual exploitation are being addressed by every single society across the globe. Both the international and the local governments should equip stakeholders with the necessary skills to counter child sex trafficking. To provide adequate economic empowerment and resources to the families to effectively address their economic status. To protect children from traffickers by enhancing child protection and safeguarding policies that keep them from falling prey to traffickers. In addition, accountability mechanisms and prevention strategies to be in place in order to eradicate child sex trafficking and other child exploitation. Without profound human rights reforms based on the interest of a child and reforms, society will be unable to provide a brighter future for our children. In the end, we must work together with a nongovernmental organization, state, and communities to eliminate the root cause and market that permit trafficking to flourish, to ensure that one-day soon trafficking in human persons vanishes from the face of the earth. We must use our voices to change our society’s perception to fight for the abolition of modern slavery and 21st-century child sex trafficking.