By Ronald Nahabwe
Nairobi: The government of Kenya has isued an immediate ban on adoption of Kenyan children by foreign nationals.
The announcement follows a special Cabinet meeting at State House, Nairobi, chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The meeting directed the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection to formulate a new policy document to regulate the adoption of children by foreign nationals in Kenya.
It ordered the ministry to streamline operations of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya and those of children homes in the country.
The children’s welfare body has recently been in the public domain on allegations of child neglect and misappropriation of public funds.
On Tuesday last week, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji ordered the police to investigate the claims.
On infrastructure, the Cabinet approved Sh6.9Bn for the development of an Inland Container Depot, railway marshalling yard, logistics zone and public utility area as well as other core-enabling infrastructure to support the development of the Naivasha special economic zone and the impending completion of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) phase 2A.
The Cabinet also approved the hosting of the upcoming Nairobi summit of the 25th International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD 25).
The summit that will be held from November 12-14, 2019 is expected to attract over 6,000 delegates from 179 countries.
The summit is set to project a positive image and solidify the country’s position as an ideal conference and aviation hub, a move that will boost Kenya’s tourism sector.
Recently, the media eported that an American philanthropist Robin Longoria, 58, of Mansfield, Texas, America, last week pleaded guilty to facilitating illegal adoptions of Ugandan children through bribing Ugandan High court judges.
On August 29, Longoria pleaded guilty of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), to commit wire fraud, and to commit visa fraud.
According to court documents released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio, Longoria worked as an employee of an unnamed international adoption agency in Strongsville, Ohio.
The adoption agency facilitated intercountry adoptions from Uganda and elsewhere for prospective adoptive parents in the United States.
Court heard that from 2013 to 2016, Longoria worked with an unnamed Ugandan attorney to pay bribes to Ugandan government officials in order to get the officials to use their positions to assist in facilitating adoption of Ugandan children for American clients.
The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development is Uganda’s central adoption authority and oversees the probation and social welfare officers assigned to magistrates courts.
Only children who are declared legally orphaned or abandoned by a judge at the end of the referral process are available for adoption.
However, Longoria admitted to paying bribes to Ugandan probation officers to influence them to issue favourable probation reports – recommending that a particular child be placed into an orphanage.
Further, she also admitted to payments to court registrars to influence them to assign particular cases to certain justices of the High court who were deemed to be ‘adoption-friendly.’
She also admitted to bribing Ugandan High court judges to influence them to issue favourable guardianship orders to the adoption agency’s clients.
The bribery scheme saw more than 30 Ugandan children adopted by American citizens for which the adoption agency charged over USD800,000 (about Shs3Bn ) in fees to the clients. But the paid bribes were concealed from the adopting parents.
