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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Likoni, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Mishi Mboko",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, maybe, you did not get my point. When we say that they need to have equal access to quality education, we mean that for them to have that quality education, they also need to have proper infrastructure."
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Peter Kaluma",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " You may proceed. I can see the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs (JLAC) and the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Education are looking at it and they may, later on, contribute on the point I am making. I thank you for the contributions that are making us realise how important this Bill is. Proceed. The minutes we have taken during your intervention will be added to your time."
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"id": 1592274,
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"speaker_name": "Likoni, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Mishi Mboko",
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"content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, learners with disabilities should not be denied admission and participation due to their disabilities. In some communities, persons with disabilities are denied access and admission to schools probably because the schools do not have units for special needs children and the infrastructure to cater for their needs. Clause 6 and 7 talk about shared responsibility between parents and the government. Whereas the government will ensure that there is proper infrastructure and supply of equipment and learning aids, like braille for the blind, parents should ensure that they take the responsibility of enrolling their children to schools so that they can access education. Moving forward, we should have regulations that will punish any parent who denies their child access to education because of disability so that all children with disabilities can access education. Clauses 9-14 strengthen the management and governance of special needs education institutions. In our schools we have board of managements. These boards take care of the management of schools. In future, it will be prudent for the boards of management to be composed of teachers, parents and experts in special needs of children with disability so that when they deliberate on anything it will be an informed deliberation. Clauses 35 and 36 establish robust quality assurance mechanisms and assign county governments the responsibility to monitor and maintain education standards. We have the quality assurance officials who go to schools to ensure that the quality of education given to children is of the standard required by the government. We need to ensure that at least there is somebody who is going to be doing monitoring and evaluation to ensure that children with disability are taken care of. A child with cerebral palsy is not just like any other normal child; it is a different child because of the condition they have. We also need to know how we will ensure that such children get a standard and quality education. It is unfortunate that, to date, we still have some educational institutions where you go and you fail to see the infrastructure done in favour of a person with disability. You do not see a ramp, or where children with disability can pass. Also, you go to a school where there is a playing field, but there is no special playing field for children with special needs. Education is very vast, and it involves a lot. If we want these children to realise their dreams in terms of education, we need to consider all factors necessary to address all the historical challenges affecting them and find a solution. Going forward, even when we budget, we also need to ensure we know what we are allocating for and where we need additional allocation. For now, I have seen that we have added money for social protection meant for transfer to persons with disability, orphans and other vulnerable groups. Going forward, as a country, we need to put priority on areas that will ensure that children with disability can access education without any kind of discrimination, isolation or denied admission to schools."
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"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. Peter Kaluma) left the Chair]"
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Likoni, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Mishi Mboko",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
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"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. Farah Maalim) took the Chair]"
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Likoni, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Mishi Mboko",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
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"text_counter": 636,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Farah Maalim",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " What is wrong with this thing?"
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"text_counter": 637,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this very important Bill that has emanated from the Senate. I must commend the Senate. For the first time, we are debating something serious from that House. Most of the time they have been grousing over their Bills, most of which do not see the light of day when they come here. This is an important Bill. Children and adults living with disabilities are sometimes taken to be a curse to society. Most of the African societies, especially pre-colonial, did not treat these people with any dignity at all. They thought it was a curse. So, the easiest thing to do was to cast them out and possibly end their lives. Fortunately, we have moved from that today to embracing the differently abled persons. It is not that they got disability per se; it is the enabling that is different. If we looked at all human beings, most of them have a disability of one type or the other, only that some are not pronounced, some are not visible, and some of them we do not want to talk about, but they are disabilities. I always look upon Hon. David Sankok, a Member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), who is a person who has lived with a disability since he was a young boy. He took it with a stride, and he has made every possible good thing out of it. He has taken it as an advantage and not a disadvantage. Differently abled people have advantages which they can exploit to make their lives better. Therefore, as we debate how we should educate our children with disabilities, we must look at this Bill with our two eyes and focus on the children to ensure that they get education equal to any other child whom we treat as a normal child. Hon. Temporary Speaker, kindly, allow me to gloss over this Bill quickly. It is important. Clause 3 of the Bill has the objects, which are good enough. Clause 4 of the Bill is on guiding principles. Part II of the Bill has Clause 5, which has the rights and responsibilities regarding learners with disabilities. Clause 5(g) of the Bill is where Hon. Temporary Speaker has posed a question as to what exactly we mean by these learners being given equal treatment with other learners. Treatment does not apply to facilities and benefits. It is how you approach the learners, so that they do not feel less. They should feel complete, in spite of the fact they do not have some parts of the body or some parts of the body are weakened and not useful in the circumstances of that instance. This means that if the children go for physical education, you do not tell those who are disabled to sit down and watch those who are normal play. It should be open to all of them to play whichever way, in a manner that is satisfying. Even if it means running, we should assist these learners to run within their capabilities. We should not limit them. This is what it means to have equal treatment with the other learners. They do not feel they are lesser human beings or those who are normal are proper persons, while these other ones are abnormal. What is the responsibility of the parent, National Government and the county governments? The National Government has tried because, even as we debate today, we have special schools for these people. However, they are not well-run, well-furnished and endowed for this particular learning. The net effect is that we have to allocate more resources, and make these schools able to accommodate these special learners. The county governments, as usual, do not play their role. We keep on complaining day in, day out that we give them resources. Instead of using them for the proper use, we have bloated employment in the counties and wanton stealing of public resources. The governors do not want to be held accountable. When the Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) try to hold them accountable, there is hue and cry that they have been funded to ruin their government or The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
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"id": 1592281,
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"speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
"speaker": null,
"content": "impeach them. The county governments, under the governors, must rise to the occasion and also play a part in ensuring that our special learners are accommodated in Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) like other children. Part III of the Bill is on registration and management of special needs educational institutions. These are the special schools we have today. We are trying to make it legal, so that we make provision and framework for our special schools to be properly registered, run and administered by people who are qualified to do these particular works. From there, we have Part Four, which is dealing with identification and assessment of children with disabilities. This is because we may not actually know this. Some of the elements of disabilities may not be known to us, and it is only experts who can do so. But it grieves us a lot by the fact that some of the children with disabilities are not let out in the open. I say this is a primitive African cultural practice, where we hide them in cow sheds, in our own dark rooms, or in our own pens which we set aside for them in a manner that is derogatory. It is now mandatory that when you have a child with a disability, the County Education Board has to do the assessment and eventually enrol that child into a facility suitable for the child to acquire some education. Part six is on development of those facilities. I have just made a reference to the fact that these schools are not particularly well-equipped or well-developed. We shall now have a legal framework requiring the Cabinet Secretary to ensure that these schools are on an equal footing with the other ordinary schools. Once we do this, we will ensure that our children who are differently abled acquire the best of the education, just like any other children. Pointedly, we have seen people who live with disabilities and who get a quality education working very well for this country. This is very important. Those are the people we should be emulating when the time comes for us to deal with the education of this group of persons. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}
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