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"speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
"speaker_title": "The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
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"legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to talk about this Motion. For the first time, it was very refreshing to listen to the Mover of the Motion, who moved it so clearly and in a very articulate manner. I want to congratulate Prof. Olweny. I think he took a lot of trouble to look at this Motion and bring it to the House. I thank him. I also want to thank the Seconder of the Motion for three quarters of his contribution. His last bit had nothing to do with the Motion. That removed a little bit of how well he had seconded the Motion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the question of disability in this country has been very complex. For a long time, parents and relatives of disabled children looked upon them as if they had wronged somebody or the deity, in order to have children with disability. As a result of that, it has been a long journey for the society to accept disabled children and give them education. I want to thank Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) starting mainly with the missionaries who became volunteers and friends of children and people with disability. Over a period of time, the Government has recognised that, indeed, these are citizens who must be taken care of. This is the reason about three years ago, the NARC Government enacted the Disabilities Act. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that Act specifies that people with disabilities have every right to all services such as education, housing, protection against abuse, security and all that. That Act which came into effect three years ago, indeed, recommends almost everything that the Mover has stated. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, again, I cannot stop thanking Prof. Olweny because he has really come out clearly. Right now, there are development partners helping us in carrying out a survey. We have always stated that ten per cent of our population is composed of people living with disabilities. Out of this, about 50 per cent of them are children. This goes to say that, indeed, nearly 3.2 million Kenyans are people with disabilities. Out of this, about 1.8 million are children who should be in school. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we now want to be specific. In fact, in a week's time, I will be officially launching the survey. It will establish, without any doubt, the number of people with disabilities, their ages and all that. We know that there are many types of disabilities. However, the only ones which are visible to us are people who are sight challenged and the physically disabled. However, there are many people, particulary children, who are mentally handicapped. Again, within the mental handicap, there are classifications; like autistic. These are children who are neither mentally nor physically handicapped. Nevertheless, they are handicapped. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when volunteers started taking interest in the children with physical challenges by giving them education, they segregated them. They started special schools for physically handicapped, blind, deaf and dumb and so forth. However, in the 1980s, a voluntary policy was set up in to integrate children within the society and schools. I think that this is what the Mover is advocating. I strongly support it. I know that the Ministry of Education has been doing something about it. That is the reason why we have special units in various schools. For some time now, an amount close to Kshs150,000 has always been sent to these special units, mainly in primary schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, once the survey comes out, we would now like to 2240 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 4, 2007 ensure that we should be talking of a minimum of one such primary school and secondary school. Ideally, there should be a school in every constituency to cater for everybody. That way, if there is lack of equipment for hearing, it should be the responsibility of the Government. There should not be a necessity for a child with such disabilities to pay the scale that the Professor has been stating. It should be the responsibility of the Government so that, in every budget of the Ministry for Education--- Once we have established the number of those children and schools, the budget of the Ministry of Education should cover all that equipment. We need to do that so that people with disabilities can feel that they belong to us. They should not be discriminate against. In any case, even now, when a child with disabilities qualifies to go to a secondary school of his or her choice and finds that the environment does not allow such a child to go to such a school, that child has a right to sue that school under the current Constitution, where disabled people are now protected. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it does not cost that much money when you consider the number of those people with hearing problems or physically handicapped. It is important that the communities, and not only the Government as the Seconder has said--- We could utilise the money from the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) to help those children. I know, for instance that, when the Government starts taking care of those integrated schools, they might not necessarily have all the facilities that are required. That is where the communities, through CDF, should be able to help in funding. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the disabled work harder than others in order to pass their examinations. That needs affirmative action. We have to help the disabled with affirmative action. The Mover is only talking about schools. But I think we need to include the question of cut- off points in examinations for people with disabilities to go to universities. That is because when you take a student who has to think about his or her crutches or the wheelchair, and such a student has to study and do the same examinations with a student who does not have that burden, that is completely unfair. When the cut-off marks are 65, that is what we expect the disabled child to get. That is because they have to work extra hard. With those few remarks, I really want to congratulate the Mover of this Motion and support the Motion."
}