**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.

<sup>7</sup> Ibid; Section 53(1).

<sup>8</sup> Ibid; Chapter 4 Section 2001(1).

<sup>9</sup> Ibid.; 53(2).
