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{
    "id": 1511581,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1511581/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 657,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Wanjiku Muhia",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "before looking at the Government. I also urge the Government and corporate organisations to do the same. I am a Member of KEDIPA which is comprised of Members from the National Assembly and Senate. Today, we celebrate one of own, Senator Asige who is the drafter of this very elaborate Bill. We also celebrate the Senators who have supported and walked this journey with her. Having said that, I wish to recruit many Members. You do not need to necessarily have a daughter or son with a disability. You may know of a person with disability indirectly maybe, you have employed a relative, somebody’s son or a friend to keep this community close to your heart. In this case, I am recruiting Hon. Dorothy in absentia. I wish to confirm to her that while considering this Bill, the caregivers were deliberated upon very aggressively. The Committee interacted with a number of them. Clause 56 (2) is giving provision for giving a token to the caregivers. It states: “(2) The Cabinet Secretary responsible for matters related to social protection may on application of a parent or guardian who is indigent and assumes full custody and care for a person certified with severe disability and incapable of catering for their basic needs, grants a long-term social assistance monthly cash transfer of not less than Ksh10,000/= in accordance with the Social Assistance Act.” We celebrate Senator Edwin Sifuna who brought this amendment and it successfully found its way here. Hon. Dorothy should not worry as the caregivers have been taken care of. We know of many single parents either a father or mother who take care of children with disabilities and cannot work. I also want to draw the attention of Members to Clause 59 on exemption from taxable income of employers of persons with disabilities. I encourage Hon. Members to employ them. This clause also speaks of assistive devices being exempted. What we need is sensitisation. Today, we pride ourselves as a country because we are not doing very badly. In the past, NCPWD was only located in Westlands. In the last few years, it has been devolved and is in every county though with very limited resources. As a House, we should give this organisation more resources so that it can have money for continuous registration of persons with disabilities and also sensitise the community. The support given by the Government is not known by Kenyans. I wish to draw the attention of Hon. Members to Clause 20 on education. It is speaking widely on education and how every child has a right to it. This clause seems difficult to implement because it is comparing a child with disability to an ordinary one by saying they must have compulsory education. At times, parents may want their children with disabilities to go to school but this is not practical. I challenge the Ministry of Education to come up with a curriculum and to ensure that there are public schools within a certain radius with special teachers. The Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE) is doing very well by training teachers. However, I want to note that these teachers volunteered themselves to KISE for the training. We pay for some of them from the NG-CDF funds. So, the Ministry of Education should come up with a formula where we can have many special teachers in every constituency so that children with disabilities do not miss on education. Classes may be there but teachers may not be there. As I conclude, I wish to say that this Committee needs to be empowered so that it can go through the annual reports and see how much the Government and the corporate world are doing in terms of employment, assistive devices and other enabling avenues for Persons with Disabilities so that it can give the House a Report that can help to tell whether we are improving or not on matters of Persons with Disabilities. Having said that, I want to once more congratulate the Committee and the Chair."
}