Kenya avoids worst offender tag, rebounds on trafficking rankings

What you need to know:

Kenya, which has been on the watch-list for three years, was keen not to fall into Tier 3
This could trigger wide-ranging restrictions on non-humanitarian aid and funding.

Kenya has managed to improve its status on an annual United States government survey of how various nations are working to eliminate human trafficking.

According to the US State Department’s 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), released on Monday, Kenya is no longer on a watch-list of countries at risk of being labelled worst offenders and losing access to key funding.

The report analyses the efforts of 188 countries to comply with minimum standards needed to eliminate trafficking of men, women and children for sexual exploitation or forced labour.

It rates each nation’s efforts according to a Tier system — Tier 1 being most compliant, through to Tier 3 being the worst offenders. Tier 2 nations are divided into two groups, with those doing badly on a separate watch-list.

Kenya, which has been on the watch-list for three years running, was keen not to fall into Tier 3 as this could trigger — at the US President’s discretion — wide-ranging restrictions on non-humanitarian aid and funding.

The Kenya government, through the Foreign Affairs ministry, recently hired Washington law firm Squire Patton Boggs on a $135,000 contract (Sh13.5 million) to stop the slide towards Tier 3 by lobbying the State Department.

The firm’s mandate was to demonstrate efforts made during the last one year to prevent trafficking, protect victims and prosecute offenders.

The report says these included “robust efforts to implement the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act (2012), prosecution of 65 trafficking cases (more than double the number in 2013), passing of the Victim Protection Act in September 2014 and reining in private overseas employment agencies.”

However, Kenya was criticized for failing to protect adult victims, not collecting data on such crimes and providing inadequate funding to ensure prevention, protection and prosecution.

The country is now back in Tier 2 with 89 other nations, including neighbours Uganda and Rwanda. Tanzania remains on the watch-list, while South Sudan is in Tier 3.