allAfrica.com: Kenya: Human Rights Watch Warns on Corporal Punishment (Page 1 of 3)

Letter to Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affair regarding concern over continued use of corporal punishment against children

July 16, 2008

Hon. Martha Karua

Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs

Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs

Co-operative Bank House

Nairobi, Kenya

Dear Madam,

We are writing to urge you to take decisive action on the problem of violence against children, and specifically corporal punishment in schools and in other settings. We believe that in your new role as Minister of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, you will have a crucial function in improving the future of young Kenyans and protecting their rights.

We recognize that over the past eight years Kenya has made some progress in addressing the issue of corporal punishment in schools. Prior to 2001, corporal punishment in schools in Kenya was routine, arbitrary, and often brutal. As documented in a Human Rights Watch report "Spare the Child," published in September 1999, teachers used caning, slapping, and whipping to maintain classroom discipline and to punish children for poor academic performance. Bruises and cuts were regular by-products of school punishments, and more severe injuries-such as broken bones, knocked-out teeth and internal bleeding-were not infrequent. At times, beatings by teachers left children permanently disfigured, disabled or dead.

As you are aware, the government banned physical and psychological abuse through the enactment of the Children's Act in 2001, and in Legal Notice No. 56, which explicitly banned corporal punishment in schools. Since then, slow change has been occurring in Kenya. Some schools have started to adopt non-violent methods of disciplining children, and have abandoned caning. In 2002, the Director of Education issued a circular to all heads of learning institutions, reminding them that corporal punishment was outlawed. The government also carried out training seminars on alternative forms of discipline. Some teachers are now recognizing the benefits of respectful treatment of their pupils. As one teacher pointed out to Human Rights Watch: "Now, I see that the pupils come forward and speak their mind, before with corporal punishment, they were shy and didn't approach us." This observation is confirmed by academic studies, which have found that corporal punishment leads to higher levels of immediate compliance and aggression, and lower levels of moral internalization and mental health.

However, there is still considerable progress to be made. Corporal punishment is still widely used in schools, as the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), the Kenya Alliance For Advancement of Rights of Children (KAARC) and other Kenyan non-governmental organizations have documented. In August 2007, Human Rights Watch researchers carried out interviews with pupils, teachers and Ministry of Education officials. Pupils described how some teachers continue to cane children, while others resort to other forms of physical punishment, such as standing in the hot sun with their hands in the air for several hours; kneeling on the ground for extended periods; slapping and pinching. In some instances, physical abuse by teachers has led to serious and lasting injuries. Teachers also punish children by giving them harsh tasks, such as running long distances or uprooting tree stumps.

These continued abuses against children constitute a violation of current national laws, as well as a violation of Kenya's international obligations as a party to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. They show that the government must do more to fight corporal punishment in schools, and address weaknesses in the law and in implementing existing policies.

The Children's Act does not explicitly ban corporal punishment in schools, homes or other settings; legal protections against abuse must be strengthened. There have been too few prosecutions of teachers who seriously abuse children; more needs to be done to facilitate access to justice for those parents and children who want to take their case to court. Teacher training has been too limited; typically, one teacher per school was sent to a training on alternative forms of discipline and counseling of pupils. The majority of teachers have not been trained and feel that the person who was trained at their school is not a sufficient resource for them.

The introduction of free primary education in 2003 exacerbated problems of discipline for many teachers. In some schools, teachers have more than one hundred pupils in their classrooms, including older children who were sent to school for the first time and found it hard to accept the authority of teachers. The government did not do enough to prepare teachers for this challenge. Current numbers of teachers are not sufficient to lower class sizes to a manageable level.

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