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"content": "disability is not inability. But there must be practical steps towards ensuring that, that person who is unable to see or to walk; or that person who has no hands is deliberately assisted. It is important that this country takes proper stock of every person with disability, in fact, including those who may have mental challenges or disability. Therefore, it must be possible that if you go the county headquarters, the Governor, at a click of a button, can tell you how many people in this county have disability and the nature of their disability. He can also tell you what deliberate steps are being taken to ensure that they are registered; that they are given business opportunities, they are assisted to form business groups, they are assisted to get the contracts and, ultimately, assisted to deliver. If they deliver the first time, the second time and the third time, then these people will stand on their own and it will inspire so many other people. I have seen situations in this country, shamefully, that a parent is tying down their child because they have mental disability until they lose their hands. That should not be the case. This mentality that if a person has any form of disability, he or she, is a curse to the family must be banished from our families. We must ensure that we have a country that respects every citizen of this Republic the way they have been created by God. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the good thing about this Bill is that it makes it mandatory and possible for both levels of Government; that is, the national and county governments levels, to be held responsible and accountable. I want to speak because this is a House that protects counties. However, protecting counties is not protecting a single individual, whether it is the Governor or the Speaker of the county assembly and so on, and so forth. Our counties were created as provided for in Article 174 of the Constitution so that they can be the self government of the people. It is a very unique statement; self government of the people at the local level. Those people at the local level – the youth, women and the persons with disability – must feel that they have a government of their own. But these governments are slowly being privatized. They are slowly becoming an entity of a few individuals, particularly the Governor and his cronies. It is saddening to hear, for example, that if the Senator of a particular county is not accessing information about what is happening in the county, how much worse is it for a person with disability, women in the rural areas and for the youth? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even as we go to the second year of financing the county budgeting and planning for the county, there must be deliberate steps that the counties take during budgeting to call and finance persons with disabilities, youth and the women to attend those forums to ensure that their voices are heard. It is not enough to attend a forum in a hotel, sign your name and you do not even know the language they are using. They must be assisted, even if it means translating what is happening into vernacular languages. The Constitution allows the use and development of vernacular languages in the counties. We must translate what the county wants to do. We must keep the county and the people of the county informed on what the counties are doing. That information must be quality information and not quantitative; we should not just give people information just for the sake of it. It must be information that gives people feedback to appreciate that they have their own government and that they have business they have created. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}