The National Council for Persons With Disabilities (NCPWD) launched the disability mainstreaming report for the fiscal year 2021/2022.
According to the report, the council has indicated a lack of commitment to disability mainstreaming by the Ministries, departments, and agencies despite a legal framework, inadequate resources to implement disability mainstreaming programs, and lack of sign language interpretation services in public offices as part of the challenges persons with disabilities are facing.
The council now wants the public service commission to spearhead the implementation of 5% employment of persons with disabilities, establish a body for sign language interpreters (SLI) and develop a comprehensive disability mainstreaming framework that will cut across all public institutions.
The council is further calling upon the government to increase budget allocation for persons with disabilities and accountability of funds that will cater to their needs.
Meanwhile, the council last year managed to decentralize the Director of Medical Services (DMS) signature from Afya House in Nairobi to the counties which is their greatest milestone.
This means that persons with disabilities from across the country will not have to travel to Nairobi to have their disability medical assessments verified and signed. Instead, this will be done by the county directors of health.
The move was achieved in partnership with the Council of Governors, Ministry of Health, National Gender and Equality Commission, Light for The World, CBM International, and KCB Foundation.
To make the exercise more seamless for persons with disabilities, the council engaged stakeholders in sensitization and capacity building of all county directors of health on the new disability medical classes assessment and categorization guidelines in December.
Other achievements include formalization of the memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK)that seeks to engage Persons with Disabilities in a 2-year project on measuring the efficiency of Kenya’s mail delivery service as well as enhance accessibility to digital services for persons with disabilities and promote their contribution and participation within the ICT regulatory space.
The Council also formalized a Memorandum of Understanding with CBM Global in developing and initiatives that foster disability inclusion through leveraging on each organization’s technical capacities and resources.
The partnership will also involve resource mobilization, registration of persons with disabilities, and building the capacity of organizations of persons with disabilities to enhance their advocacy activities.