Tuesday March 26, 2019
British High Commissioner to Kenya Nic Haley (left) and head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti when they launched Kenya's first cyber unit dedicated to fighting child sex abuse on March 25, 2019. PHOTO | BRIAN OKINDA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Paedophiles, child traffickers and abusers now have their days
numbered after a cyber centre was opened at the Kenya Police’s
anti-human trafficking child protection unit on Monday.
The
cyber centre, touted as the first of its kind in the continent, will
help to bring to justice to paedophiles, who target and abuse vulnerable
children in the country.
Director of
Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, while opening the cyber-wing,
said that the abuses and atrocities that children go through are
nerve-racking.
“Through this
cyber-wing, any atrocity committed against children will be monitored,
reported and addressed in real-time, and the perpetrators brought to
book even without their awareness,” said Mr Kinoti.
He
said that child abuse, which takes different forms, is currently a
global vice with perpetrators working in networks from different
countries in bid to evade authorities, a phenomena Mr Kinoti says
requires global collaboration.
International paedophiles, according to the
DCI head, are now migrating to rural areas disguised as charity and
philanthropic entities, where they commit the atrocities on innocent
children.
“Some traditional cultures such as early marriages, still in those rural communities also enhance these vices,” he said.
British
High Commissioner Nic Hailey, who was also at the launch, pledged UK
government’s support to track foreigners who abuse children in Kenya.
“Online
child sex abuse is a global problem with images created and shared
across the world, including in Kenya. This new centre will help the
Kenyan authorities stop this vice and hence protect children from being
ill-treated. We will also work with the Kenya police to ensure that
British paedophiles targeting and abusing vulnerable children in the
country are brought to justice,” Mr Hailey said.
United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) regional representative, Dr
Amado Philip de Andrés, said that over 60 percent of human trafficking
cases in the country, involve children, and hence cross-border
cooperation between countries is vital.
“Similar
units will be set up in Mombasa and Kisumu, and in due course,
regionally in Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and
Sudan,” said Mr de Andrés.
The
new specialist cyber centre, which was funded by the British
government, will for the first time enable Kenyan authorities to access
data on child abuse, using information provided by technology firms.
British
Prime Minister Theresa May announced the centre last year as part of a
cooperation pact with Kenya during her Nairobi visit last year.
“Online
child exploitation is an abhorrent crime and we are determined to
ensure there is no place to hide for predators who use the internet to
share images of abuse across borders, too often with impunity.
“This
builds on our ongoing work with Kenya on security and criminal justice –
a partnership which has already helped to convict and imprison
terrorists in the UK," said Ms May.