Disability is not Inability

:: Day of the African Child with Disabilities:

In 2007 the day of the African Child, we celebrate two heroic children as portrayed by the media. This portrayal expresses what our dreams are for these children as a society. As we reflect the South African Children who were gunned down in Orlando Soweto by bullets of apethied so many years ago, we should also pose and consider what bullets these portrayals shoots at the future of our children paradventure we are accused of apatheid ourselves.

Trevor Langat Kibet, the 13 year-old student of Brookhouse, who risked to write a letter to the finance Minister Amos Kimunya in an effort to inspire members of parliament to think development instead of sleep in the chambers. John Kibichi, the limbless, 7 year old who appeared in the media at the same time playing football; or holding a pen with his mouth writing in school. with parents asking seeking alms from good samaritans to educate the clever boy. The two children were both shown in the media during the week of the budget.

John Kibichi	Trevor Kibet Langat

The most 'succeesful' government programme.

The facts about the two Heroic children of independent Kenya are as opposite as light and darkness. John is celebrated because while we did not wish our children to be like him and dont want to his basic needs to get an education, even though we sympathise with his condition, we are amazed at his magic triumphs.

While we did not protect him from stigmatising neighbours and poor parents who do not understand why "Magic John" does not have limbs, we love to see him on TV kicking a ball and asking for help from good samaritans who can help educate him in a country where free education is the most successful government programme.

We admire the risk young Kibet Langat took. We are awed at his mastery economics and his ability to risk wrting a letter to inspire members of parliament to think development and not sleep on the job. He has visited Kimunya's finance Ministry office and dreams of a business channel to facilitate debate on more serious matters that would make Kenya equals of Singapore and South Africa.

At 13 years, he has achieved alot for himself. He was in South Africa in the Young People's Conference where he saw first hand what roads Kenya ought to have. So he knows the relationship between the sleeping MPs and the bad roads he sees on his way to school in the new school bus. That is the real Kenya if we are to make Vision 2030.

For "magic" John Kibichi, he needs the media to help him raise funds to get a teacher who knows how to teach him. He needs a good samaritan to get him a wheelchair. He needs his mother to wheel him to school every morning. He needs his parents to protect him from neighbours who have been told he is a curse.

He does not know if the local school will take him for class two which is upstairs and the wheel chair cannot make it. His mother has to carry him up the stairs at the local hospital even at 17 years since there are no rumps. He knows that even after going through all this like his older brothers who are deaf, blind or physically challenged he will have to pay tax to build social services he is denied access.


Apartheid?

So when Kibichi was told about a trip to South Africa, that is if the airplane will accomodate him without charging extra shillings for his special needs. He will find no difference between the children like Hecta Peterson who died by the gun of Apatheid South Africa and children with disabilities in Kenya of 2007. To peterson, apartheid was the political system that existed in his days South Africa, in which only white people had political rights and power. To Magic John it would mean a political system in which only people without disabilities had political rights and power.


Kibichi Verses Kibet's dreams

So while "Magic" John would need 'magic' to become planning minister in 2030, Young Kibet would have all things well for him funded by the government, including social services like education, health, and ICT to the transport system. Young Kibet Langat, has started his campaign for Finance ministry at the age of 13 years. He has visited and got used to his work station in Parliament and Treasury.

Kibichi's 'magic' would not even bring him to Nairobi to see himself on TV. All media houses travelled to North Nandi, but none could think of inviting the 'limbless' to their Nairobi office. "What for?" Asked a reporter. Finance Minister Kimunya's deliberately ignored him in the budget too and his office is out of bounds. This year, Treasury which sits on a pedestal, was able to refurbish its envirunments without including a rump at the gate.

So Kibichi would need his 'magic' to crawl up the stairs at the gate. If he can't manage Treasury, He is not welcomed to Parliament either. The streets are hectic for his wheelchair which is not motorised. The recent beautification and refurbishment of pavements in town by the Nairobi City Council removed the rumps he could have used, built during the President Moi regime.

But his heart is determined. 'He is already adopting to do everything on his own, with very little support from his mother.' lets hope his magic and self determination despite all these barriers we have erected infront of him does not condemn him to some street corner with a bowl in hand, asking Kibet for alms, but with better government spending he will end up Treasury planning ministry sharing an inclusive building with a cabinet colleague the finance minister Langat.

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