Child trafficking has been cited as the major factor that has triggered the huge number of orphans ending up in Garissa rescue centres.
The kids, most of who are lured before being kidnapped, are said to come from the Dadaab Refugee Camp.
According to Bashir Abdullahi, the Garissa Children's Centre manager, the continued flocking of refugees into the county has further led to the situation getting more complicated.
Abdullahi alluded that in most cases, tracing the parents of the minors has been proving difficult owing to the fact that a number of them are intercepted on transit by the police before being brought to the centre.
‘'The children in this centre are brought to us by the police and we have no other option but to accommodate them,’' he said.
Abdullahi, however, criticised local community elders for infringing rights of the underage children.
‘'Several hundreds of minors have been subjected to abuse in their villages and homes. There are a lot of paedophiles freely roaming in the community, and these are the ones who commit these criminal acts with impunity,'’ he said.
The centre’s manager cited shortage of resources and staffing as some of the setbacks facing the institution