OPINION: We are all Disability Candidates

By Esther Kiragu

One may not be born with a disability, but likely, disability will affect nearly all of us at some point in our lives.

Speaking during the Disability reporting training by Internews held on 6th to 8th Dec, 2022, Harun Hassan, the Executive Director of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) said he was ushered into a whole new world after a tragic road accident 20 years ago.

“I had to chart a new path and that included a different career,” he says.

Harun immersed himself in the world of Disability advocacy and together with a few friends, founded the Northern Nomadic Disabled Organisation (NONDO). The organisation advocates for the rights, inclusion and participation of people with disabilities in nomadic counties in Kenya. 

He also served as a board member at the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) in 2015 and 2016, where he criticized the approach taken in the implementation of disability inclusion. Mostly, the approach taken was as a charity model instead of a human rights model.

“Disability is costly. If you count what PWDs inject into the economy of our nation, then society will change their mindset and view us as equals who contribute greatly to the economy,” says Hassan who now sits at the helm of NCPWD as its Executive director.

These sentiments are echoed by 26-year-old George Ochola, a Program Officer at the Kenya Association for the Deaf (KNAD). At the age of 3 years, George’s parents noticed that he had difficulties in hearing. Further medical checkups confirmed that he is Deaf. He can lipread and also uses a hearing aid which he says he has won for the last few 16 years.

“Hearing aids are expensive and some are not always available locally. In addition, I have to go for checkups regularly, in my case twice a year,” says the final year student of Mass Communication at Nairobi Aviation College.

Throughout his primary education, George went to an inclusive school and only joined a school for the Deaf in high school. He is proud of the work they do at KNAD as many sign language interpreters have benefitted from training by the organisation.

In 2002, after a near-fatal accident during his presidential campaign, the late Mwai Kibaki was inaugurated as the third president of Kenya while in a wheelchair. He quickly moved from a non-disabled to a person with a disability, albeit for a few months. Arguably, it was during his reign that Kenya made great strides in matters of disability inclusion.

Some of the gains include the establishment and strengthening of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities to promote and protect equalization of opportunities and the realization of human rights for PWDs to live decent lives.

It is the realization that any of us can join the disability club that made Dr Ndavula, a senior lecturer at Murang'a University deliberate in championing disability rights. Throughout his career, Dr Ndavula has had the privilege of looking at several curriculums in both private and public universities in Kenya.

 “Unfortunately, many curriculums aren’t responsive to the changes in society. As a disability researcher and writer, this gave me insight into a world that most people don’t understand’ he says. I realized that change begins with me,” he expounds.

Having seen the gap between media, disability and human rights. He purposed that one of the ways to make a difference was at the training level for journalists. It is this that led, the senior lecturer who leads the Humanities Department at Murang’a University to review the Bachelor of Journalism and Digital Media curriculum. This year the curriculum has adopted disability reporting as a senior unit, taught and examinable by a project in 4th year.  

Data released on September 30, 2022, from the National Police indicates that out of the 15,924 road accidents recorded between January 1 and September 26, 2022, 3541 of the accident victims (22.2 per cent) died, 7,236 seriously injured (45.4 per cent) and 5,147 slightly injured (32.3 per cent).

Chances are in a wink of an eye, some of those who were seriously injured in these accidents have now become Persons with Disabilities. Indeed, we are all disability candidates and therefore we should be deliberate about ensuring an accessible and inclusive society for all.