Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu has urged urgent, collective efforts to eliminate child labour and guarantee children meaningful access to justice, warning that no child should be forced to work when they should be learning.
Speaking on Wednesday at Strathmore University during the closing ceremony of the Third Annual Employment and Labour Relations Court Symposium and Exhibition (ELRASE3), Mwilu said the Judiciary remains firmly committed to protecting children’s rights.
The symposium, themed “Elimination of Child Labour and Access to Justice,” brought together judges, legal practitioners, academics, and labour experts to explore solutions to child exploitation.
“Every judgment we deliver, every case we handle involving a child, is an opportunity to tilt the scales of justice towards tangible societal transformation,” Mwilu said, adding that child labour is both a legal violation and a profound matter of social justice.
She called on judges and magistrates to show courage and creativity in cases involving children, stressing that judicial interventions can restore dignity and safeguard opportunities for vulnerable minors.
The DCJ also highlighted the unique risks faced by children in displacement contexts and reaffirmed the Judiciary’s alignment with its blueprint, Social Transformation through Access to Justice (STAJ), which prioritises the protection of vulnerable groups.
“No child should work when they should be learning; no child should suffer when they should be safe; no child should be invisible when they should be heard,” Mwilu declared.
Principal Judge of the Employment and Labour Relations Court, Justice Byram Ongaya, echoed Mwilu’s sentiments, stressing that access to justice for children requires recognising them as rights holders.
He said barriers such as high costs, distance, language, stigma, and fear of retaliation often deny children justice, and must be dismantled.
“Remedies must go beyond ending harmful practices to also close the gap between law and reality while ensuring protection, care, and dignity for affected children,” Ongaya said.
He further called for public interest litigation and strategic cases to hold perpetrators accountable and strengthen child protection frameworks.
Now in its third year, ELRASE has grown into a flagship platform of the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
This year’s focus on child labour underscored the urgency of protecting children’s rights and embedding dignity and justice into judicial practice and policy.
Mwilu praised the symposium for generating insights that will inform jurisprudence and policy reforms in labour and child protection law.
