The Government has issued a 14-day closure notice to Charitable Children's Institution (CCI) in Kajiado district for alleged child trafficking.

The home has been accused of trafficking a female child to the United Kingdom while 27 other children at the home have been fostered locally without adherence to the procedures provided for by the law.

It was the trafficking of the little girl, two years ago, that has come back to haunt Huruma Children's Home in Ngong' division after the child was discovered by authorities in London and the matter taken to court.

The closure notice to the home was delivered to the manager Ms. Zipporah Kamau early this week by the Rift Valley provincial Children's Officer Mr. Abdi Sheikh Yusuf on the orders of the Director of children's services, Mr. Ahmed Hussein.

Yusuf was accompanied by senior officials from the CCI secretariat at the department Mrs. Judy Oduor and Ms. Roda Misiko and Kajiado district children's officer Ms. Ruth Mboya.

Prior to the issuance of the closure notice Mr. Yusuf met with the Kajiado Area Advisory Council (AAC) whose members have been attending a training workshop on child trafficking and other forms of child abuse where he asked the members to meet urgently to determine the fate of the children's home and the 145 children at the institution.

The AAC is a multi-sectoral committee that is chaired by the District Commissioner and has a responsibility to supervise and routinely inspect all CCIs in the district.

The Council are also charged with the responsibility of resource mobilization in their respective districts to facilitate implementation of projects aimed at improving the welfare of children and usually networks with NGOs and other partners in the private sector.

The AAC is mandated by law to close any CCI in its area of jurisdiction suspected of being involved in malpractices.

The provincial children's officer asked the council to visit all charitable children's institutions in the district and scrutinize records of children in order to establish if illegal practices like child trafficking were taking place.

A recent inspection of the Huruma Children's Home by a team from the CCI secretariat revealed that the institution lacked safety guidelines, did not maintain proper records for the children while a majority of the children had not been committed to the home through a court of law.

The home was found to be congested and the inspection team recommended re-integration of some of the children with their guardians and families.