Parents have been urged to respect the rights and freedoms of their children by providing them with education and promoting equity among them.
Plan International’s Nancy Okoth, when speaking to parents and children at Thim Bonde Primary School in Nyahera, said that most of the parents are concentrating too much on the girl child ignoring the boy child’s needs.
Okoth said that boys have always been affected when sexually abused because their parents think that they are tough. She said boys and girls should be given the same attention to avoid losing one over the other.
She appealed to the parents to treat their children equally if they have been abused sexually rather than assuming that boys can handle the abuse.
Okoth also blamed the men saying that most male parents have left the parenting role to women which overwhelms the mothers.
“Both parents should make sure that the child is protected effectively but most of the men have transferred the duty to women which is not the right thing,” said Okoth.
She however blamed the parents and the courts for allowing the resolving of sexual abuse cases out of court saying that it is affecting the victims.
“People still compromise on issues of sexual abuse against children and prefer out of court settlements. This denies children the justice especially when the abuse occurs at the family level,” said Okoth.
She said Plan International and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) have rolled out a project aimed at ending violence against children where they have trained some teachers as beacons in child protection.
The teachers will train children, parents and other teachers to support protecting children.