Nubian Rights Forum & 2 others v Attorney General & 6 others; Child Welfare Society & 9 others (Interested Parties) [2020] eKLR 509. Ms. Mureithi also stated that from her experience, the process of tracing a child’s family is usually tedious, lengthy and costly. Further, that DNA testing for children is done in circumstances that are psychologically overwhelming for the child and the parents. NIIMS, in her opinion, stands to assist in effectively tracing a child’s family and confirm parentage without imposing unnecessary trauma to the involved parties, which includes children. 510. Ms. Mureithi averred that a special category of separated children are children with special needs and tracing their families is often a challenge. Further, that ensuring that separated children with special needs are placed in various forms of alternative family care equally becomes a challenge and almost impossible by reason of which some end up in institutions up to adulthood, thus denying them their constitutional right to parental care and protection. It was her position that through NIIMS, CWSK will be able to obtain each child’s Huduma Namba and biometrics and mitigate against cases of children with special needs being abandoned and remaining in institutions for lengthy periods which is detrimental to their development. 511. Ms. Mureithi further argued that during political upheavals like the 2007-2008 post-election violence and natural calamities like drought or famine, children are usually separated from their parents. In her view, the implementation of the law would make reunification of children and their families take a shorter period. 512. Ms. Mureithi further averred that NIIMS stands to mitigate various crimes against children such as child labour. Through the available records of NIIMS, the children caught up in child labour and those at risk of entering child labour will be easily traced by the authorities. Further, that NIIMS will be able to track children attendance in schools and school dropouts, for instance how many children are accessing education in a given locality. It was her view that this information would be crucial for the government to ensure that various intervention programmes in the areas such as withdrawal and preventions of exploitation of children, especially in child labour, as well as provision of psychosocial support to ensure children are retained in schools are properly implemented. 513. Ms. Mureithi further contended that NIIMS will put an end to the cases of duplicate registration since the details of children will be captured and recorded from birth. It was her averment that at the moment, a child can acquire various aliases which end up registered at various levels. She further contended that as the system is very porous, it makes it easy for networks and conspirators to traffic a child especially in a commercialized legal process. She argued that DNA biometrics will easily lead to reunification of children with their birth families, while through NIIMS, children from border communities who are in the country for one reason or the other will be identified and monitored. Referring to The Trafficking in Persons Report 2017 by the Department of State of the United States of America (USA), she stated that currently, Kenya is cited as a source, transit and destination country in human trafficking. 514. Ms. Mureithi further stressed the benefits of NIIMS, contending that the process of advertising children for tracing is costly and lengthy, and with the advent of NIIMS, these costs will be reduced drastically and the time taken will be minimal. She noted that Kenya is a signatory to the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption which provides for the subsidiarity principle which implies that in cases of children who have no parents, all local options should be exhausted before considering inter-country adoptions. It was her contention that NIIMS shall aid in ensuring due diligence in terms of finding local options for a child such as opportunities for family preservation as opposed to exiting Kenyan children to foreigners while many Kenyans are ready and willing to support their own. CWSK therefore urged the court to dismiss the Consolidated Petitions. 515. The 8th Interested Party, International Policy Group, opposed the petition through an affidavit sworn on 26th April, 2019 by its Director, Dr. Kenneth Orengo. Dr. Orengo’s averment was that as per Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by 150 nations, including Kenya, at the 4th plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly held on 25th September, 2015, the provision of legal identity for all, including birth registration, was identified as one of the goals to be attained by 2030. He averred that sustainable development and the objectives of http://www.kenyalaw.org - Page 76/174