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{
"id": 1560712,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "(Question proposed)"
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"id": 1560713,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560713/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Dorothy Ikiara."
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"id": 1560714,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560714/?format=api",
"text_counter": 665,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nominated, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Dorothy Muthoni",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise in this House today as a happy person. At the outset, I support the Learners with Disabilities Bill (Senate Bill No.4 of 2023). We talk about disabilities a lot, but we do not know the extent to which people who live with disabilities are impacted. We must first realise that there are many forms of disabilities. We have the deaf and hard of hearing, the visually impaired, the physically challenged, autistic persons, and those with multiple disabilities. When it comes to learning, it is imperative that we look at these categories individually. In addition to debating the Bill, we must go further to ensure that disabilities are managed at a policy level. I commend the Departmental Committee on Education, but I wish they could go a step further to amend the Bill to introduce a special unit that will be exclusively in charge of special institutions, just like the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions that take care of TVET colleges. The unit should have its own Principal Secretary. 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."
},
{
"id": 1560715,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560715/?format=api",
"text_counter": 666,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nominated, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Dorothy Muthoni",
"speaker": null,
"content": "There are 1.7 million people in our country who live with disabilities, which is not a small number. We should manage disabilities at a policy level. There are schools in this country that cater to various disabilities. Teachers who are specially trained to handle visually impaired children are in schools for the blind. We also have schools for the deaf and hard of hearing, which care for students and pupils in that category. We also have teachers who take care of children who are physically challenged and autistic. However, we have not determined whether we have sufficient institutions to care for those children. Are we giving this group of citizens a fair share of what the Government should provide its citizens? Have we equipped our schools correctly so that these special categories of persons can access everything they need to be comfortable? We found that the gadgets and equipment people with disabilities require are not available because they are too expensive. For instance, the blind need braille machines, the deaf need hearing aids, and the physically handicapped need special wheelchairs to take them from point A to point B. Sometimes those gadgets are not available because they are too expensive. We have occasionally proposed on the Floor of this House to have those items duty- free so that they are accessible, or for the Government to provide them for free. Unfortunately, a majority of the people who have children with disabilities are low-income parents who are not even able to provide for themselves. Hon. Temporary Speaker, when it comes to the teacher-student ratio, there are never enough teachers to take care of children with disabilities. The Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE) trains various categories of teachers to care for children with various disabilities, but the ratio in these institutions is still insufficient. Children are taken to most of these institutions, but they do not get the specialised care required to advance their lives to a level where we can comfortably say that they can compete globally with other children. Hon. Temporary Speaker, in the developed world, children with any form of disability are well taken care of. All their bills are managed by their governments. In addition to education, healthcare is very expensive for this category of children. It is the responsibility of the Government to take care of children with disabilities. However, I do not want to discredit the Kenyan Government because under the leadership of His Excellency, President William Samoei Ruto, it has given cash transfers to this category of children to help improve their quality of life. I want to buy into the idea of the Departmental Committee on Education and Research Chairperson, who has clearly said that we need to integrate these children into normal institutions. This is the only way they can be more accepted in society. However, there are children with very severe disabilities who cannot be integrated. The Government must look at ways and means to give severely disabled children a fair share of their lives to socialise. While some may not be able to learn much in school because they cannot conceptualise anything, they must be given an opportunity to socialise and know that there is life beyond the confinement of their parents' houses. What happens to parents of severely disabled children? They cannot carry them on their backs to any institution or expose them anywhere because they do not have any other caregivers. They, therefore, need an institution where they can, at least, be taught how to cater for themselves. Hon. Temporary Speaker, it is the responsibility of the Government to give every human being a chance to live life to the maximum, whether they are aware of where they are or not. Even the noise alone can wake them up and make them aware of the world. I strongly support this crucial Bill. If there is anything that is happening in the Departmental Committee on Education and Research that will take them to heaven, then it is thinking about this special category of persons. I support. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
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"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560716/?format=api",
"text_counter": 667,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Member for Machakos County. 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."
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"id": 1560717,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560717/?format=api",
"text_counter": 668,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Machakos County, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Joyce Kamene",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity to air my views on the Learners with Disabilities Bill (Senate Bill No.4 of 2023). I applaud the minds that came up with this great Bill. I have heard the Departmental Committee on Education Chairperson articulate it, and I believe this is long overdue. If there is one thing I am passionate about, it is children living with disabilities. I have travelled to various schools across my county, and I can attest that most students studying in Special Schools are learning in deplorable environments. Just last month, the head teacher of Wamunyu School for the Mentally Handicapped called for assistance because the school toilet had sunk. They did not know what to do, as no funding was available. The parents could afford to put up another toilet. When she called for a meeting with the parents, they cried, asking where they would take the children. With this kind of framework, institutions will have a clear policy on how to run the schools and how they will be funded. I also visited another facility in Masinga, where special needs students in the primary school shared the same dormitories as the boarders. The school was looking for ways to ensure the young boys did not cross over to the young girls because the boys had attempted to access the girls’ sleeping quarters. What does this say? These schools have been neglected for a long time. In some parts of the country, there are so many of these institutions that funding is not enough. Even the capitation that is forwarded to those schools is never enough."
},
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"id": 1560718,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Machakos County, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Joyce Kamene",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I support this Bill and hope the whole House will strongly support it, too. I hope that it will be fully implemented because parents are suffering. Most of them come from needy backgrounds and, therefore, cannot afford to take their children to boarding facilities. With those few remarks, I support. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
},
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"id": 1560719,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1560719/?format=api",
"text_counter": 670,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Member for Ol Jorok, you may proceed."
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"id": 1560720,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ol Jorok, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Michael Muchira",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I also rise in support of the Learners with Disabilities Bill. Special Needs Education is an area that we have really overlooked as a country, and it is time that we put emphasis on these institutions. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the right to education is a constitutional right, and nobody should deny any learner the right to education based on disability. This Bill removes the barriers that normally exist in terms of access to education for learners with disabilities. It also recommends that learners with disabilities should access support services to ensure smooth learning. The Bill also ensures that the existing infrastructure in our learning institutions is friendly to the learners. Hon. Temporary Speaker, as we pass this law, we also need to ensure that when it comes to budgeting, we allocate resources to Special Needs Education, as it faces an acute funding shortage. This House has a role in budget-making, and as we prepare the Financial Year 2025/2026 Budget, we need to be intentional about funding Special Needs Education in two or three ways."
},
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"id": 1560721,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ol Jorok, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Michael Muchira",
"speaker": null,
"content": "First, we need to ensure that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is well funded and that we have teachers trained in special needs. In most of our areas, schools and classrooms for special needs have been closed due to a lack of special needs teachers. When we follow up with the TSC, we are told they do not have enough money to employ enough special needs teachers. So, this is an area that, as a House, we need to look at and ensure that we have enough money ring-fenced purposely for the special employment of special needs teachers and ensure that, besides employment, we also have skills development for those specific teachers."
}
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