Uasin Gishu County Assembly nominated MCA Samora Machel has challenged the Ministry of Education to ensure children in remand homes access free and compulsory education.
Machel said many of the remand homes in the country don’t allow children in the custody to access education denying them their constitutional right.
“I call upon the ministry of education and legislators to come up with a policy and program that will ensure children who are detained longer in the remand homes get an education,” said the MCA when he joined a group of former remandees to donate foodstuff and clothes at the Eldoret children remand home on Monday.
“As a way of empowering children in juvenile remand homes to stop conflicting with the law, they must be educated and be exposed. I call upon the Kenyan criminal justice process for children to focus on rehabilitation together with education rather than on punishment alone,” he added.
Machel further said that with education, children will be able to understand their rights and even be able to ask for their criminal records noting that some of them are taken in to be processed by the care and protection system without proper knowledge of interpreting their charges.
The nominated MCA also called on courts to put measures to ensure children in need of care and protection as well as those accused of crimes are treated differently.
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