Become a foster parent
State Department for Children Services · sources read 3 Oct 2026
Apply to the State Department for Children Services through your Sub-County Children Officer. You will be vetted, and the service is free with a 14 working day charter time.
- Fee
- FreeFoster care services
- How long
- 14 working days (service charter)
- Where
- Your Sub-County Children Officer (State Department for Children Services)
What you need
- Foster care application in the prescribed form
Steps
- Contact the Sub-County Children Officer near you, or email alternativefamilycare@socialprotection.go.ke, to start.
- Apply in the official (prescribed) foster care form to the State Department for Children Services.
- Go through vetting: a Good Conduct check, a medical check and a home study.
- If approved, a child is placed with you for up to 12 months at first, renewable each year up to 3 years in total.
Watch out
- No more than 4 foster children in one home, unless they are siblings.
- You cannot take a foster child out of Kenya without the court's permission.
- A person convicted of the offences listed in the Children Act cannot be a foster parent.
Who can apply
- Married couples or single people aged 25 to 65 who live in Kenya.
- You must have lived in Kenya for at least 12 months.
- A single man can foster a girl only if he is a father to a girl, and a single woman can foster a boy only if she is a mother to a boy.
Official sources (4)
- Child Protection Services Portal childrenservices.go.ke · read 3 Oct 2026
- Service Charter childrenservices.go.ke · read 3 Oct 2026
- FAQs childrenservices.go.ke · read 3 Oct 2026
- The Children Act, 2022 (No. 29 of 2022) childrenservices.go.ke · read 3 Oct 2026