Kenya has an array of safeguarding-related laws and policies, with the anchor law being the Constitution whose Chapter 2 is dedicated to protection and promotion of fundamental rights and freedoms of all. Other statutes have been enacted to promote and protect these rights and freedoms in the criminal and civil arena include:

• Sexual Offences Act 2006, which defines consent, sexual offences and provides minimum sentences for these offences;
• The Victim Protection and Witness Protection Acts are essential measures taken to ensure the safety and welfare of survivors of violence and their witnesses.
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act and Work Injury Benefits Act, No. 13 of 2007  clarifies expectations for employers to keep their workplaces safe, and provides for compensation for work related injuries, including apprentices and those in indentured learnings for work-related injuries and diseases contracted during their contract period.Safety and health of persons while learning and/ or providing services in learning institutions is key.
• The Employment Act provides for employee welfare and safe recruitment practices, such as right to be protected from non-discrimination, child labour, sexual harassment among others. It is critical that all institutions working with children and vulnerable persons employ safe recruitment practices. This will enable them to weed out individuals who are likely to cause harm to people and injure the reputation of the institution. 

• The Data Protection Act,2019 and its regulations provide guidance for institutions on how to manage personal data and uphold the rights of data subjects such as informed consent to processing of personal data. Some strategies for safeguarding personal data include:

  • Don’t process unless you absolutely need to do so;
  • Data minimisation -  A data rationalisation exercise will help determine the critical data that needs to be processed;
  • Pseudonymisation of data in storage ensures that the identities(real names, location etc) of the data subjects are not exposed;
  • Anonymisation by removing all personally identifiable information (PII) of data subjects;
  • Deleting personal data after the agreed time lapses or the intended and consented purpose is served; 
  • Managing access to personal data to ensure that there is no unauthorised access for prejudicial purposes, and;
  • Embracing technology in data processing.

However, the effectiveness of these statutes and laws is hampered by a myriad of implementation challenges. The challenges include

• Lack of dedicated civic education on the protection and advancement of their human rights.
• Limited resources allocation for the implementation of these policies e.g. Establishment of safe houses for victims and witness protection is hampered by resource constraints;
• Poor coordination of key actors and programmes, which may lead to duplication of efforts. This also hampers the collection and sharing of key data on vulnerability to inform the design and implementation of supporting programmes. and;
• Inconsistencies in the laws and the provisions on safeguarding. Some clawbacks on previous gains made in the safeguarding arena e.g., how long is basic education for purposes of safeguarding children and young persons.