HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1592285,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1592285/?format=api",
"text_counter": 642,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Homa Bay Town, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Kaluma",
"speaker": null,
"content": "documents had to change. His life had to change from a person who was helping others to being helped. I then realised that it is important that we think about these people. I am one MP who hosts the only school in the entire of Southern Nyanza, including Kisii area and part of Bomet, of children who are enabled differently intellectually. When you see the situation, sometimes we talk about the issue, even the release of their capitation here, I can tell you we should focus more on their situation than other children who are enabled differently. When there is no water, you do not know what to do with the children in Ogande Special School in my constituency. Sometimes the principal has to call me when there is delay, saying, can you even send some money, we get a bowser from Homabay town to get water to the school because of their situation. Some of them are autistic while others are intellectually gifted in different ways. We are being careful on language because it is a difficult situation. If you allow them to go to a river, they will drown yet they need water a lot. We had to reach a level of getting help from the Japanese Embassy in Nairobi, for us to have enough dormitories and to create for us infrastructure that can help these children enter and also study. Let me address the Chair of the Committee. If you go there on their Education Day, you will see how innovative they are. I can tell you that the bedside carpets that I use, and the beads used in my house, are processed by very beautiful things. Look at the bangles, the innovativeness, when they are trained to be able, like other people, to live on their own. We have seen cases where persons with disability were being exploited by some Kenyans who are enabled differently, on the streets. By investing in the learning and skilling of persons with disability, we remove such abuses. I am very happy, therefore, with this Bill coming from the Senate, and I think it is a good intervention because it is going to a vulnerable section of our society, whom we should be taking care of. But I wanted to add that this is important, because when we are supplying resources to these institutions, we are being alerted that we must always have those resources in time. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I have spoken to the absence of water in these institutions at times. What of the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Education, where there is no capitation and, therefore, they do not have food? Remember, sometimes people just drop them there – people who are not even related to them. Sometimes these schools, having learners with their various disabilities, are just used in the manner they were in the traditional sense of somewhere you drop people and you forget about them. The difficulties that the principals go through are very, very, very dehumanising. Therefore, I agree with this Bill that for once, the infrastructure accommodating persons with disability will be adequate; and the training as well as the skilling will be relevant to make them have a meaningful life beyond being people who can be neglected. I know that we are coming from old tradition where when you were born with any form of disability – if I may be allowed to use that word – you were deemed to have been cursed. In the olden days, in most African societies, such person would be dropped in the wilderness, a rope would be tied to confirm whether it is shaking or not until the person died there, and his body would be devoured by wild animals. We are past that stage. That is why this Bill makes me very happy. So, the provisions contained herein will ensure that we have adequate accessible infrastructure and personnel to train and give skills to people who are gifted differently for them to live their full life. We must ensure that there are facilities and an environment where disabled children can enjoy their right to education. This right is secured firmly under Article 53 of the Constitution and Article 45 on the right to free and compulsory basic education. The fact that they are enabled differently does not mean they should forgo those rights; it is not an exception in our Bill of Rights. This is a good Bill and I support it. However, at the appropriate time, I will urge that we review some of the provisions by way of constructive amendments to make them clear, more direct and assertive in terms of the rights we are talking about. For instance, Clause 5(g) 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."
}