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{
"id": 1238232,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1238232/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
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"speaker": {
"id": 33,
"legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
"slug": "margaret-kamar"
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"content": "The guiding principles arise from the Constitution itself, that every child has a right to free and compulsory basic education, pursuant to Article 53 of the Constitution. In the guiding principles, therefore, every person shall, in performing their functions under this Act, be guided by the principles outlined in Article 53 of the Constitution, that is, the right to free and compulsory education. Then, coordinated public participation in the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and plans related to the implement implementation of special education in Kenya. As a background, as I mentioned earlier, this Bill is aimed at providing a legal framework to ensure the actualization of the right to basic education, education for learners with various disabilities in Kenya. This is to ensure that they get those rights are the three levels of education, not just basic, but also higher education. The Bill creates provisions of law that obligate the national Government through the Ministry of Education, and the county government to carry out that duties in bringing the education learners with disabilities to parity with able learners and to end the exclusion of learners with disabilities from the education cycle. I will just give an overview of the Bill for the sake of Members. The Bill comprises several provisions, which include consequential amendments to existing laws that maybe affected by the implementation of this Bill upon its enactment. Part One of the Bill, which is Clause 1 – 4, contains the citation of the Bill as usual, as well as the various definitions of terms that are being used in the Bill itself. This part also contains the objects and the guiding principles, as I have mentioned, in performing duties under the Act, once enacted. The principles, as I mentioned earlier, are guided by the principle of Article 53, of the Constitution, as well as the principles of public participation, which provides the right of the public to participate in the development of a Bill. Part Two, Clauses 3–5, contains the rights of learners with disabilities. When we talk of the rights as outlined in the Constitution, the right of learners enunciated in Clause 5, is the right to access to quality education, which is normally something that is denied to this class of Kenyans. The right of access to information: When we talk of the right to access quality or equal education to everybody, we are talking about enabling somebody who is disabled to reach first where their education has been provided. This may require that there is a modification of the learning environment. As you are aware, even in this House, we used to have problems with access to the Chamber until one day we had a Member who got into an accident in the ninth Parliament, and from there, ramps were established. So, when we are talking of access to education, we are talking of what facilitates the person to reach where the education is being provided, to begin with. So, the right to access is very important. Then access to quality education; that the education that is being given is equal to education that is being given to any other child in the country."
}