Government data shows 23 child protection cases reported daily
An average of 23 daily cases involving missing, abandoned, abducted or found children were recorded between January 2025 and March 2026, according to data released on Sunday that paints a stark picture of pressures facing families and child protection services.
Records from the Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS), maintained by the State Department for Children Services, show 10,581 child protection cases were logged during the 15-month period.
They included 1,636 cases involving missing or lost-and-found children, 1,952 reported abductions, 173 confirmed trafficking cases and 6,820 incidents of child abandonment.
The figures follow concerns raised during last year’s International Missing Children’s Day commemorations, when the State Department for Children Services reported 8,824 cases involving missing and found children in 2024. Of those, 3,866 children remained missing while 2,336 were reunited with their families or placed in alternative care.
“Behind each statistic lies a story of heartbreak and loss,” Gender, Culture and Children Services Cabinet Secretary Hannah Cheptumo said during a briefing in Nairobi marking International Missing Children’s Day.
“These are not isolated cases. They reflect a serious national challenge that calls for collective responsibility.”
Observed globally on May 25, the day commemorates missing and abducted children and traces its origins to the 1979 disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz in New York.
Authorities used the occasion to draw attention to patterns emerging from CPIMS, the digital platform introduced in 2016 to consolidate child protection records from across all 47 counties.
The system integrates reports from children’s officers, the National Child Helpline 116 and community reporting networks, allowing officials to track cases as they move through the protection system.
Abandonment accounted for nearly two-thirds of all cases recorded during the period reviewed, making it by far the largest category in the database.
Child welfare officers and advocacy groups linked the trend to rising economic hardship, family breakdown and migration pressures.
The figures also point to continuing risks of trafficking and abduction. Although trafficking cases accounted for a relatively small share of the total, officials said many involved severe forms of exploitation, including forced labour and commercial sexual abuse.
Nairobi recorded the highest number of child protection cases nationally, leading an urban and regional trend that officials noted is heavily concentrated in Nakuru, Kakamega, Homa Bay, and Kiambu counties.
The database is also used to coordinate rescue operations, trace relatives, support family reunification and monitor court-directed child protection interventions.
Principal Secretary CPA Carren Ageng’o said the department had undertaken a range of interventions across the reported cases, including alternative family care placements, rescue operations, family tracing and judicial action.
“Timely reporting remains our most critical leverage point to enable swift intervention, investigations and access to justice for affected children,” Ageng’o said.
Child protection officers, however, say significant gaps remain when children disappear across county boundaries, particularly when delays in reporting slow the circulation of alerts between agencies.
One recent case that drew public attention involved six-year-old student, who disappeared after leaving school in Sagana, Kirinyaga County. CCTV footage reportedly showed the young child walking alongside an unidentified man shortly after classes ended, underscoring concerns about how quickly missing-child alerts can be activated and shared.
The State Department says it is working to strengthen community-based reporting systems and expand coordination through a network of more than 107,000 Community Health Promoters.
It is also backing proposed amendments to anti-trafficking legislation aimed at tightening oversight of illegal adoption networks and unregulated child-care institutions.
The figures were released as implementation of the Children Act, 2022 continues, with county-level structures taking on expanded responsibilities for child welfare coordination and protection services.
Officials urged the public to report cases involving missing or vulnerable children through the toll-free Child Helpline 116, which feeds directly into the national tracking system.
The latest figures also arrive as the country receives recognition for its policy response to child exploitation. According to Ageng’o, it recently ranked first across Eastern, Southern, West and Central Africa on the Out of the Shadows Index, which measures government efforts to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Yet the CPIMS data suggests that, despite stronger tracking systems and legal frameworks, thousands of children continue to fall into the gaps created by poverty, family breakdown, trafficking networks and delayed reporting.
