Gender Cabinet Secretary Hannah Cheptumo has denied reports that at least 10,581 children are missing in the country.

In a post on X, Cheptumo said the figure refers to the broader Missing and Found Children caseload recorded in the Child Protection Information Management System between January 2025 and March 2026.

“The caseload includes cases of abandonment, lost and found children, abductions and trafficking, including children who were found, rescued, reunited or placed under protection and care interventions,” she said.

The CS said the ministry is coordinating a multi-agency approach to strengthen child protection, prevention, tracing, reunification and response systems across the country. “Accurate interpretation of child protection data is important in supporting informed public discourse and coordinated efforts to safeguard every child.”

The clarification comes amid growing public concern over rising reports of missing children.

According to Police Spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga, police have recorded about one hundred and thirty-nine (139) cases of missing children in 2026, with 41 cases currently before the courts.

“At the same time, we have 52 cases under investigation by various police departments,” he said.

Nyaga said the NPS recorded about 754 missing children cases in 2025 and another 1,276 in 2024.

Why children are disappearing?

Evalyne Mboya from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit, appearing on Citizen TV said many of the cases handled by police involved attempted illegal adoptions.

Mboya averred that some people involved in illegal adoption schemes were either unaware of the legal process or ignored it altogether, adding that many reported cases involved grooming for sexual exploitation, which often begins online before perpetrators meet and abduct children physically.

Other motives behind child disappearances, she said, include ransom demands, forced labour, organ harvesting and ritual practices.

But the police spokesperson denied claims of a surge in missing children cases, saying the increase in reports could be linked to greater public awareness and faster dissemination of information.

Children Services Principal Secretary Careen Ageng’o said that of the 10,581 reported cases, only 1,636 involved missing children.

She explained that children’s offices also receive reports related to custody disputes, maintenance, abandonment and other welfare concerns.

Addressing discrepancies between ministry and police data, Ageng’o said some cases are resolved by children’s officers without police involvement.

“We have noted the gap, especially in cases requiring investigations, and we need to align our data with the police,” she said, adding that a data-sharing agreement was already in place.

The PS further said the children’s department is likely to report higher figures than police because it handles more child welfare cases. Going forward, she said, cases involving children would be reported to both the police and children’s offices.

Missing Child Kenya Foundation Chief Executive Maryana Munyendo said the organisation had recorded at least 1,883 cases of missing children between 2016 and 2026, including 41 this year alone.

She attributed the varying figures to poor coordination among institutions. “We are trying to consolidate this data and put it together. What it needs is concerted efforts and cross-sharing data agreements.”

Nyaga said police supported Cheptumo’s proposal that missing children cases should be reported immediately instead of waiting 24 hours.

On her part, Mboya held that family disputes had also contributed to some reports, with children sometimes reported missing only to be found with the other parent. “Very few cases point to organised crime, and many are resolved,” she said.

She added that the DCI had established specialised units, including the Anti-Abduction Unit, staffed by trained officers to handle such cases.

The Numbers

According to PS Ageng’o, poverty has also contributed to cases of children running away from home. Since July 2025, she said, the government had distributed Sh9.1 billion to 440,000 families caring for vulnerable children.

She added that 70 per cent of the 10,581 reported cases were linked to parental neglect. The ministry, she said, was promoting safe parenting programmes to help address the problem.

Ageng’o said the State Department for Child Services also operates a foster care programme that allows prospective parents to adopt children legally and free of charge.

There are about 44,000 children in care centres whose parents have not yet been traced, adding that the government lacked a centralised identification system for the children.

More than 70 per cent of the children have at least one surviving parent, she said, and the ministry aims to reconnect them with their families by 2030.

Ageng’o said the country currently has 1,200 children officers working alongside regional and county coordinators and National Government Administration Officers.

“It is true the numbers at the State Department do not match the scale of the work required,” she said, adding that the ministry needs more than 7,000 staff members to adequately address child welfare issues.

She also said there are currently 18,000 street-connected families in the country, 26 per cent of whom are children. The figure, she said, is down from 48,000 recorded during the 2018 census.

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