By Lynne Morris

‘What are you going to do for us today’? One of the boys asks me. I tell him I have brought some bread and milk, and there is an eruption of cheers and shouts. It was as if Kenya had won the World Cup, but this joy was not from the normal things a teenage boy would get excited about.

I am on a visit to one of the children’s remand centres in Nairobi, where conditions are so bad that bread and milk is something that is worth celebrating.

There is nothing to do here. Nothing to read, watch, listen to, or play with. It’s a bare room that contains only bunkbeds, with no windows or malaria nets, in which 96 boys aged between 12–17 live as they wait for their day in court.

There is a small, dusty courtyard they can spend a few hours a day in, but this brings little respite from the boredom – remarkably for a country mad about football, there is not even a ball to kick around.

We are not here just to bring supplies. We are working with our local partner to ensure these boys get pro-bono legal representation so they have the right to access justice and a fair trial. The Kenyan constitution stipulates that this also means a trial should begin and conclude without unreasonable delay.

For Matu*, who was on remand here for four years, since he was twelve, that delay was beyond unreasonable.

I’m here with the team from children’s rights charity Toybox to support children in Kenya who are in conflict with the law. Our vision is not only to remove children from custody but to support a justice system that will protect all children’s rights, no matter what their background.

Child access to justice

Prison is no place for a child, it impacts every area of their mental and physical development and once they are in custody it makes rehabilitation much more difficult. The Kenyan education system makes it impossible to take a break from learning and then come back to school later. So once out of the justice system, educational options are limited to vocational training.

UN guidance says that no child under 16 should be incarcerated within a prison. Kenyan law states a child should not serve more than a three-year sentence but Kenya’s high court ruled only last year that children should not be given custodial sentences. So why are these children here?

The reality is that once in court, things do improve for these young people because Kenya has an advanced juvenile justice system. The 2022 Children’s Act, the National Strategy on Justice for Children, and the National Council on the Administration of Justice are all designed to protect children who come into contact with the law.

Once a case is heard, it can be dealt with under this guidance, with custody issued only as a last resort.

The high cost of living and increased levels of food insecurity has seen more and more children coming into contact with the law, as they are pushed into greater levels of petty crime. This has led to currently over 900 children being held on remand in Kenya, the majority of which are boys.

But getting these children’s cases to court is an enormous challenge. The juvenile justice system is overwhelmed across Kenya, and remand is a no-man’s-land where there is a bottleneck of cases and not enough resources to clear them promptly.

Many of those that come into contact with the law are street children or from deprived backgrounds, so they are already at a disadvantage. They may be unfairly targeted by police and often have no legal counsel or guardian available to help them understand their rights. Even if a cash bail is granted, they are unlikely to be able to afford it.

Additionally, many children are wrongly detained under an offence called ‘preparation’. If a young person is suspected by police of ‘preparing’ to commit a crime by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, then they can be held on this basis – despite it being unconstitutional.

A legal advocate would have no trouble getting ‘preparation’ dismissed as a reason for incarceration. We work closely with the local police forces and run child protection training to try and prevent this happening.

All of this slows down the legal process and means predominantly marginalised children are unnecessarily put on remand whilst their case is resolved.

Partnering with the judiciary

The Kenya Judiciary has recognised the urgent need to process children’s cases quicker. It has declared November to be ‘National Child Service Month’, to fast-track the large backlog of child cases. All courts across the country are instructed to process all child cases pending for more than six months during the service month.

This gave us a huge opportunity in November 2024, when we worked in partnership with the judiciary to get long-standing children’s cases heard. We have strong relationships with local judges, which helped get the cases into court quickly.

Over 300 children’s cases were processed in November, more than are usually completed in the whole year. Proving that when the resources are available, there is a dedication and willingness across the system to work to remove children from custody.

The principles of Kenya’s juvenile justice system are in place, but there is a need for more funding and resources to maintain the same level of momentum outside of National Child Service Month. Currently, there are too many gaps that children are falling through. For Matu, who languished here on remand for four years, his case fell through a massive gap.

As with many of the long-term detainees, his case was complicated. He was co-accused with adults, which hindered the process as the adult case must be concurrently processed. It’s a challenge, but we are working on ways to get these cases fast-tracked so they don’t roll on for years.

When we found out about Matu’s case we immediately petitioned the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) to negotiate with the judiciary to get a court date. We got the case in front of the Court Users Committee, where everyone involved in the case was represented: the police, ODPP, judiciary, a religious representative, and the case worker on our team. This crucial step meant everyone could agree on what needed to happen to get the case resolved.

The process worked and we were ecstatic when he was released recently. He still faces many challenges ahead though, having lost such a large part of his childhood on remand. We are working closely with him on his post-care support; he is going to need a lot of help to restart his life.

Find out more about Toybox’s work giving children access to justice in Kenya at toybox.org.uk

*Not his real name