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"id": 1034429,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kathiani, WDM-K",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Robert Mbui",
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"legal_name": "Robert Mbui",
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I rise to support this important Motion to provide assistive devices and required medical items free of charge to persons living with disabilities. At the beginning, I must say just as the Hon. Sankok has said that, all of us are potential candidates to live with disabilities. I am saying that because I was a temporary member of that club for a number of months and I understand the challenges that people living with disabilities face. This Government supports many sectors. The elderly get a stipend every month when they are above 65 years and orphans get a stipend every month, but when it comes to persons with disabilities, the Government says that it can only support those people living with severe disabilities. That tells me that they do not even understand. We have policy makers who do not understand that even a little form of disability completely makes somebody incapable of carrying out very basic responsibilities. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I did some little research on this and realised that Kenya is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Articles 4, 20, and 26 state that the State should promote the availability of appropriate devices and mobility aids and provide accessible information about them. The standard rules on equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities also calls upon states to support the development, production, distribution and servicing of assistive devices, equipment and dissemination of knowledge about them. The reality is that we are in a low-income country. Unfortunately, from the statistics, in many of our low-income countries and middle-income countries, only about 5 to 15 per cent that require those system devices actually get them. So, because of that, many people live in abject poverty. If you go to the streets of Nairobi, you will find that almost all beggars are people living with disabilities. In fact, they are not only beggars, but they actually get an assistant who walks them around. There is one gentleman I saw in the streets. I think he lost one of his legs. That gentleman has been begging in the streets of Nairobi hopping on one leg. I thought those are the kinds of things are our Government needs to deal with. Let me share my personal experience because, you know, a lot of times, people do not understand how difficult it is. When I was a temporary member of people living with disabilities, I realised that we take for granted some things that we cannot do by ourselves. At that time, I could not take a bath by myself. I needed to be assisted. Please consider this. I could not completely use one of my legs and so, I could not step on the ground and stand up like I am doing now. So, even if I had to put my leg somewhere, somebody had to help me by either holding me back or something like that. It was so difficult. Whenever I wanted to take a bath, my wife had to support me and put me on a chair. So, I used to bath while seated down. It was so unfortunate. When I came back to the House, we went to Mombasa on a trip. First and foremost, in the plane, I had to sit with my leg stretched because I could not bend it. I realised that when you go to serve food, you want to choose the food you will eat but you cannot be on crutches and also carry a plate of food. You can actually carry nothing. If you are on crutches, you can only hold crutches and nothing else. So, it is a shame to hear that, at such a time in this country, there are people who do not have crutches. So, I support this Motion and support Hon. Dennitah Ghati and for those who do not know, we joined together in the last Parliament. This was a very vibrant person. In fact, if the Jerusalema Challenge would have been done when she was walking, you would have seen some moves you 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."
}