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  • Title: Regulating foster care services: the Kenyan situation.
    Author: Umbima KJ.
    Journal: Child Welfare; 1991; 70(2):169-74. PubMed ID: 2036871.
    Abstract:
    This paper compares the traditional rural clan and extended family communal form of foster care with the more recent state-sponsored nuclear foster/adoptive care prevalent in urban areas and based in a western-style constitution and child care legislation. This author wonders whether the state's philosophy is realistic in light of the pervasive and manifold social problems in Kenya today. In light of Kenya's social problems, this paper argues that the country's state-sponsored, nuclear foster care is unrealistic, and suggests that the traditional foster care of extended families is better equipped to deal with realities of the situation. According to African culture, a child belongs to a large family, a clan, and the care and discipline of children are communal responsibilities. Without any set of written rules, the clan takes on the responsibility of caring for orphans. But with the introduction of Christianity, Western culture, and modernization--especially in urban areas--the traditional form of foster care has given way to state foster care. Kenya's Constitution, borrowed from England, calls for the state provision of care and protection of children who are abused, neglected, or denied basic necessities. Foster parents are chosen by the court. These well-defined regulations require substantial resources to be effective, resources that Kenya does not have. Since the 1960s, Kenya has experienced the problem of street-children and abandoned children, who come mainly from poor families. The author explains that children in need of care and protection account for 40% of the Kenyan population. The Kenyan social realities, however, make it impossible to provide care for these children. Most people who volunteer to take in children are interested in adoption, not foster care. Moreover, with an average of 6 children, Kenyan families have little room for a foster child. Also, unemployed young men make up a large proportion of the urban population, a group that cannot serve as foster parents. Given these realities, the Kenyan government should encourage foster care within extended families.
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