Disability is not Inability

::We have made progress with disability: Lets give credit where its due:

I refer to an article in the Daily Nation on 17th january 2007 by a Lucas Ndiege Winda. First i agree totally with the general principle of the article titled: Its tough life for the disabled due to lack of a helping hand. There still too much apathy in relation to disability in Kenya. There is need for the more resources to be channelled to disability related issues. There are many issues pending in the Disability Act that need specific and urgent government leadership.

However, since the Kibaki administration came to power in 2002 we have seen more action than the all the years since independence. The real fruits may not have tricled down to the mwanachi disabled person but lets accept tangible steps have beens made, which Mr Ndiege's article overlooked.

First a major foundation for effective implementation of the the Person with Disabilites Act 2004 has been done. The National Council for Persosn with Disabilities (NCPWD) hwas established vide the PWD Act 2004 as indicated in part one of the ACT. The Council has established an office, a secretariat, and a strategic plan for 2006-2009. The NCPWD Strategic plan puts up plans on what they paln to do in the next three years which are issues clearly stated in the Act. They may need alot of resources that the government need to add up to their budget to enable implementation.

The Council recently embarked on the a registration process of all persons with disabilities(Individuals and organisations). They were allocated about 10 million for their budget last year 2006-7 budget. we hope the government would put in about 50 million in the financial year 2007-8. which is still not adequate and needs to be over 300 million to enable the effective implementation of the startegic plan.

Thge other main issue is that the NCPWD is now responsible for registration of all organisations working within the disability sector. Many of the issues raised by Lucas will be a thing of the past once the registration process is complete. The NCPWD registration policy includes methods of not only monitoing the funds allocated to the organisations but also impact in relation to the individuals and communities you are working with. The registration will include individuals and their various disabilities. The statistics on PWDs have been an effective excuse for policy makers who feel they do not have figures to base resource allocations.

It is also in the last four years that the government has funded more disability related projects than any other years. Take Aids campaign for example. The government through NACC has given organisations doing HIV/AIDs over Kshs. 40 million. the funds have been useful to many young organisations for PWDs. Theses funds have been important in building the necessary structures at the grassroots level for expansion or services to PWDs.

We have issues with PWDs themselves apart from organisations that fleece the persons with disabilities. Many leaders of the disabled community also do not implement programmes under their care with the empathy with their fellow uneducate PWDs. Many organisations of PWDs lack of capacity to implement programmes beneficial to many of our poorer colleugues. The organisations are full of perpetual leadership squabbles and stay years without accounting for their funds. Take a good example is the umbrella organisation of the disabled poeples in Kenya.

Most of the other issue menetioned in the article by Lucas are education and mobility issues. There is need for better education for PWDs with communication challenges more that those with physical challenges. Deaf blind, deaf and the blind face more challenges in education and health than physically handicapped. Mobility issues can be overcome more by a more social transport policy the privatization of transport in Nairobi is a big challenge for PWDs. private transport organisations will not implement disability-friendly measures unless with specific support from the government.

The issue of tax exemption is more a problem of the finance ministry than that of the Ministry of Gender, sports and culture and Social services. There is need to agree on a criteria for vetting who should be exempted and who should not. The government revenue targets makes it jittery of the proposal for blanket exemption. Perhaps, after the census we would have a rough figure of who is working where and does he or she need exemption. Weather all or some PWDs need exemption is an issue the Act does made clearly vague.

All said and done, there is much the government has done in the last long while that may have not trickled down but have set in motion valleys that would enable the flowing of these to us at the grassroots countrywide.

Disabiltykenya

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Category: Community policy

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