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Causes of Child Rights Infringement among Early Childhood Learners in Teso Central Sub-County, Busia County, Kenya
Subject area: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities · Area of research: Educational Psychology
Abstract
Infringement of child rights persists across boundaries of geography, race, class, religion and culture, and Kenya has incorporated extensive international obligations into domestic law without eliminating the practices those obligations prohibit. Understanding why infringement continues requires evidence on its causes at the level at which interventions are actually delivered, yet Kenyan research has concentrated on older learners and on policy implementation rather than on the conditions producing violations in particular communities. This paper reports the second objective of a larger study and examines the causes of child rights infringement among early childhood learners in Teso Central Sub-County, Busia County, Kenya. A descriptive survey design employing quantitative and qualitative approaches was adopted. All 74 teachers in the 38 Early Childhood Development and Education centres of the sub-county were included by census, and 15 of 38 headteachers were selected by simple random sampling. Teachers rated five potential causes on a five-point Likert scale, and responses were analysed using frequencies, means and standard deviations. The composite mean was 4.32 with a composite standard deviation of 0.77, indicating strong agreement that the factors examined contribute to infringement. Family breakdown or parental neglect ranked first at a mean of 4.57 with a standard deviation of 0.53, attracting agreement from 73 of 74 respondents and not a single dissent. Inadequate enforcement of laws and policies followed at 4.37, poverty at 4.28, limited awareness among parents and community members at 4.27, and cultural and traditional practices last at 4.09. The study concludes that infringement in this setting arises principally from conditions within the household and from the failure of enforcement to reach it, and that the ranking places cultural practice below family, institutional and economic causes, which has direct implications for where intervention should be directed.
Keywords
Child Rights Infringement, Early Childhood Learners, Family Breakdown, Law Enforcement, Parental Neglect.
How to cite this paper
@article{1720182,
author = {Sulumeti Ikaba William, Robert Wafula, Janet Nabiswa},
title = {Causes of Child Rights Infringement among Early Childhood Learners in Teso Central Sub-County, Busia County, Kenya},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {10},
number = {1},
pages = {3297-3305},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1720182.pdf},
abstract = {Infringement of child rights persists across boundaries of geography, race, class, religion and culture, and Kenya has incorporated extensive international obligations into domestic law without eliminating the practices those obligations prohibit. Understanding why infringement continues requires evidence on its causes at the level at which interventions are actually delivered, yet Kenyan research has concentrated on older learners and on policy implementation rather than on the conditions producing violations in particular communities. This paper reports the second objective of a larger study and examines the causes of child rights infringement among early childhood learners in Teso Central Sub-County, Busia County, Kenya. A descriptive survey design employing quantitative and qualitative approaches was adopted. All 74 teachers in the 38 Early Childhood Development and Education centres of the sub-county were included by census, and 15 of 38 headteachers were selected by simple random sampling. Teachers rated five potential causes on a five-point Likert scale, and responses were analysed using frequencies, means and standard deviations. The composite mean was 4.32 with a composite standard deviation of 0.77, indicating strong agreement that the factors examined contribute to infringement. Family breakdown or parental neglect ranked first at a mean of 4.57 with a standard deviation of 0.53, attracting agreement from 73 of 74 respondents and not a single dissent. Inadequate enforcement of laws and policies followed at 4.37, poverty at 4.28, limited awareness among parents and community members at 4.27, and cultural and traditional practices last at 4.09. The study concludes that infringement in this setting arises principally from conditions within the household and from the failure of enforcement to reach it, and that the ranking places cultural practice below family, institutional and economic causes, which has direct implications for where intervention should be directed.},
keywords = {Child Rights Infringement, Early Childhood Learners, Family Breakdown, Law Enforcement, Parental Neglect.},
month = {July},
}