A former Australian cop named Adam Whittington started a nonprofit with the goal of protecting children from human trafficking. However, the organization was deregistered after an investigation found that Whittington had allegedly made up tales to get donations.
Project Rescue Children (PRC) was said to have made misleading claims regarding its African rescue centers and exploited innocent children as pawns to solicit money.
Whittington, a citizen of both the United Kingdom and Australia, reportedly deceived contributors by posting on social media that his organization had saved a newborn from human traffickers in The Gambia, even though the infant had been living with its mother the entire time. The mother said that the PRC had never sent her any funds.
Some PRC-established shelters for abused children in Kenya, The Gambia, and Uganda were either understaffed or deserted. During one visit, it was discovered that a PRC center in Kisumu, Kenya, was actually a private household. The resident said she was unaware that the charity had used images of her house for promotional purposes.
Madeleine Allgood, a former PRC ambassador who had a falling out with Whittington last year over her demand for the disbursement of funds from a fundraiser, expressed her approval of the deregistration but demanded more inquiry.
For Whittington, this is hardly an isolated incident of controversy. Several unfounded allegations about the Kisumu rescue center were the subject of an inquiry by the Kenyan government in 2021. The Kenyan authorities determined that the center was “not registered or operational” at that time.
An examination by the Kenyan Directorate of Criminal Investigations revealed that the Queensland-based organization, which claimed responsibility on social media in September 2020 for saving 96 children who were smuggled into Kenya from Uganda, was really uninvolved in the operation.
After receiving a complaint in March 2021, the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in Kenya, Inspector-General Hillary Mutyambai, began an inquiry against PRC.
According to documents, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and the Australian Embassy in Nairobi were approached by the Kenyan authorities to assist with their inquiry.
