Kenya: Report on Ambitious National Disability Conference

In January, Kenya hosted the first National Conference focusing on the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 1999 - 2009. Though a belated development, this conference should herald a new era for Kenyans with disabilities. Will it do that?

For starters, what is the African Decade for Persons with Disabilities? What is its origins and goal? What is the expected outcome of the decade? Will it be another wasted decade? This decade has its roots and veins in the United Nations Decade of People with Disabilities.

The origin of "disability decades"
The United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons, 1983 - 1992, was a period in which UN member states were expected to implement the world programme of Action concerning PWDs. The Decade raised many expectations on the part of disabled people everywhere. It had been hoped that after the UN Decade, the quality of life of disabled people in the world would have improved and that they would be part of mainstream society. While some states did something of note during the Decade, others just let it pass by. The UN decade   had its successes and failures.

The successes were more pronounced in the Northern Hemisphere than elsewhere. It created an opportunity for disabled people to meet globally to discuss their issues; it resulted in an improvement in attitudes in some parts of the world towards people with disabilities; it resulted in the formulation of the Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities; it led to the creation of more organizations of disabled people during the decade than at any other time, and to the strengthening of those already in existence; it led to the creation of the African Rehabilitation Institute (ARI) by the Organization of African Unity to spearhead disability issues in Africa.

However, the Decade had major setbacks too. The UN decade was not well publicized by the UN; and some governments, despite supporting the UN resolution, did nothing to promote the Decade. The UN itself and many governments did not provide adequate funding for the Decade's activities. The funds that were mobilized for the Decade were not adequately monitored, resulting in ineffectiveness of some programmes. The UN decade was, by and large, a global approach to the problems of disability and the solutions that were offered were general and global, or based on assumptions of availability of economic and technical resources.

The experience of the UN decade led to calls for a decade of disabled people in various continents, including Africa, providing a local approach to the problems of disability and thus developing local solutions to those problems.

Kenyan objectives
In the same vein, the continental Action Plan for the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities calls on African Union member states to internalize and domesticate the Decade objectives. Member states are required to meet, reflect and develop national strategies and plans on the decade. It was therefore fitting that the first Kenya National Conference on the Decade, held on 18 th - 23 rd January, 2004 in Mombasa, had the theme, "Kenya: Reflection and Action".

To start with, the goal of African decade is the full participation, equality and empowerment of people with disabilities in Africa. Against that background, the Mombasa conference had the following objectives:

1) to develop and launch the country plan of Action for the Decade, to explore the status of disabled persons in Kenya and formulate a comprehensive plan of action in accordance with the Decade objectives, 2) to share Decade experiences from other countries and draw lessons to inform the process of developing Kenya's National Decade Plan of Action, and 3) to develop and put in place mechanisms for monitoring the country's Decade Plan of Action.

Conference highlights
The conference ably hosted by the ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services, a couple of disability-oriented NGOs and the United Disabled Persons of Kenya (UDPK) brought together a mixed grill of government representatives, players in the civil and faith based organizations, notable professionals and disability advocates drawn from the public, private and civil society, not forgetting the media.

The conference was graced by the presence of, and addressed by the Vice president of Disabled People International ( DPI), African Region, Mr. Khalfan Khalfan, and by Hon. Alex Ndezi, a powerful Ugandan member of parliament who has a hearing and speech impairment. Mr Ndezi is also the National Chair, National Union of Disabled People of Uganda ( NUDIPU). Finally Mr. Prayat Punogn from Thailand shared the experiences of the Asian Pacific disability, to mention but a few.

The conference organizers had also sent invitations to leading disability luminaries in South Africa. They however could not attend because the conference coincided with the meeting of the UN Working Group on the   Disabled People's Convention in New York. The National Steering Committee for the conference carefully chose what was to be discussed and factored in the national strategy and plan. The topics included a discussion on international Human Rights Instruments as they appertain to people with disabilities, historical development of the African Decade, the Asia Pacific Decade experiences and lessons learnt, poverty, development and disability, service provision and disability, the issue of universal design, education, health and training, disability and media, dynamic and responsive disabled people's organizations, gender, parents, ageing and children with disabilities, positive images-- breaking barriers, policy and legislation and the new Kenyans with Disability Act 2003.

So far so good! But, will this conference be a turning point in our history? Will this conference lead to renaissance in Kenyan disability matters? Will it galvanize national consciousness and commitment to disabled Kenyans? Indeed it should!!

Key areas in draft strategy and plan
A look at key areas in the draft strategy and plan may help. Delegates broadly agreed on the following key issues as a way forward for the Decade in Kenya:

There will be need for massive awareness and publicizing of the Decade across the country. The Ministry of Information and Tourism, development partners and the media should take a great lead on this. Development partners, some of whom were represented in this conference, such as UNDP and USAID, will need to recommit themselves morally and materially to support the operationalisation of not only the national strategy and plan for the Decade, but also the implementation of the new Kenyans with Disability Act, 2003.

Capacity development, effective use of media
Consensus was also arrived on the need for serious capacity development of parents' and disabled people's organizations. These groups and organizations were found wanting in many respects. This has adversely affected their capacity for self-advocacy and engagement, demand for service, including quality control and participation. Delegates underscored the indispensable role of the media. They recommended that disabled persons be supported to learn the ropes of effective media engagement for purposes of public awareness, stigma reduction, positive image and the use of media as a powerful tool of advocacy.

Self-representation
Delegates also agreed that there will be need to put in place an effective strategy to enhance self-representation of disabled persons in key organs of planning and decision making. In this respect, they called on the Kenya government to include a member of parliament with disability among the 5 MPs that are to represent Kenya in the Africa Union Parliament.

Call for national secretariat & African disability rights convention
To monitor, coordinate and harmonize progress of the decade, delegates agreed that the government establish a secretariat with adequate resources and appoint a national standing committee to track progress of the Kenya chapter on the Decade. As a follow-up of what is contained in the Continental Action Plan objective 8, the government was asked to support efforts aimed at the development of an African Convention on the rights of people with disabilities, inclusion of disability issues in the implementation of human rights instruments at national level and support the development of sign and tactile languages and recognize them as the official languages of   deaf and deaf-blind people respectively.

Delegates also agreed that there is a need to lobby government to allocate responsibility for coordination of disability related policies, programmes and services to the President's Office and to establish a disability desk in all government ministries and state organs. This recommendation is borrowed from the South African model, which in addition to having a parent ministry for disability, has an office of the status of disabled people in the Presidency.

Lastly, delegates strongly recommended that the Ministry of Planning and National Development in conjunction with development partners should move with speed to undertake a national census on disability. This conference was indeed a mouthful and only time will tell as to whether it translates into enhanced lives for Kenyans with Disabilities.

The writer is a regular commentator on disability and development.

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