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{
"id": 961077,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/961077/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13131,
"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
"slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
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"content": "is not the biggest employer in any economy. The biggest employer is the private sector. How do we, therefore, incentivize the private sector to employ more PWDs, and to make true to the affirmation of the Constitution that at least 5 per cent must be employed? The easiest and quickest way is tax-based incentives. This could be, for example, giving tax relief, even if it is through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE), to companies in the private sector that have a certain percentage of PWDs. For instance, if I am employing five people at Kshs50,000 and I get an incentive of Kshs50,000, I am able to employ another extra person using that tax relief or even use that money to expand my business. Madam Temporary Speaker, we should find a way where these incentives – which many times are just pronouncements during the reading of the Finance Bill or the budget – are actually practically implemented. That is something that I am willing to push, as the Chairperson of the Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, together with the Committee on Finance and Budget. We have had these pronouncements for many years. If we look at that end of the spectrum, we will able to make any entrepreneur, private organization or multinational to be more encouraged and inspired to actually look out for PWDs. Madam Temporary Speaker, as I move to closing my remarks, because I can see that the time is not good, we need to also look at the built environment, this country has standards on buildings by the Kenya National Bureau of Standards (KEBS). I have travelled with you to many countries around the world, and if you look at the curbs or pavements, their ending is not an abrupt one. It is rather, a gradual ending where a wheelchair can use it as a ramp. When we tell policy makers in Kenya that we need to have that, they say, “But we do not see people in wheelchairs in the streets.” That is the reason you do not see people with wheelchairs on the streets; because the streets are not built or created for them to be able to move. It is, therefore, not a matter of the egg and the chicken, but actually about providing for them. If you go to many of these states, you will find a lot of dots at the junction, and the texture changes. Therefore, if someone is walking with a cane and they are blind, they will know that this is where the street has ended and I need to stop. If you look at the buses, we have standards in Kenya. I will share this with Sen. (Dr.) Musuruve. We have building standards, and I will even show you that this is the width of the door of a toilet; this is how you put props for somebody who is using a wheelchair or is blind for them to touch and tell. In an elevator, it is usually written first floor, second floor or third floor. However, there is brail that is incorporated, even in lifts and in buildings, that we should actually ensure are implemented. We need to make sure that public transport are PWD compliant, especially now that we are talking about the buses that are coming to Nairobi for mass transit. I hear that they are coming from South Africa or wherever they are coming from. Are they disability friendly? Is the entry low enough; and is the width of the door wide enough?"
}