Kenya bans child adoptions by foreigners

ANKARA (AA) - The Kenyan government decided Thursday to ban “with immediate effect” adoptions of children by foreign nationals, after observing legal manipulations and violations against babies, local media reported.

In an extraordinary meeting headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta at the State House in Nairobi, the Cabinet decided to shape a new policy document aimed at regulating adoption by foreign nationals in the East African country, spokeswoman Kanze Dena was quoted by the Daily Nation news website.

The decision comes as concerns have been raised about the circumstances by which children and babies have been adopted by foreigners.

A U.S. couple recently won a lawsuit against the government for the procedure of adopting a Kenyan baby.

The male baby, Kiano, was handed over to the couple Wednesday over legal guardianship by the Nairobi’s Children Court which the couple was granted in April 2017, the star Daily reported.

Kiano was separated from the couple as detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations stormed their house in Kenya and forcefully removed the baby.

The police said Kiano, “was found abandoned as a newborn along with another baby, believed to be his twin,” according to the Daily Nation.

"I can confirm the child has been handed over to the [adoptive] parents three hours ago under unclear circumstances," the Star quoted a source at the Lang'ata Road-based Children Welfare Society of Kenya on Thursday, without providing further details.

In August 2015, the High Court ruled on hindering two Swedish couples and a Danish couple from taking three Kenyan children abroad after discovering the children were not abandoned but were missing children whose families had searched for months to find, according to the Daily Nation.

The Kenyan government, in response to a report in 2017 by an affiliated committee of experts, decided to halt renewal of licenses for children’s homes, abstaining from granting licenses to new ones.

That decision came over reported “manipulation leading to commercialization of adoptions,” according to the Daily Nation.