Government Implementation of the Standard Rules
As Seen By Member Organizations of
World Federation of the Deaf - WFD

Kenya

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© Dimitris Michailakis 1997

Kenya National Association of the Deaf, Kenya
No reply was received from the Government of Kenya.
Compare with the following Country Report(s): WBU

General policy

The officially recognized disability policy is expressed in law, and in guidelines adopted by the national disability council. The emphasis in this policy is on prevention, rehabilitation, accessibility measures, anti-discrimination law and individual support.

Since the adoption of the Rules the government has appointed a special committee to review the law related to disability. The committee is composed by able-bodied and disabled experts, leaders and advocates in the disability movement.

Legislation

The rights of persons with disabilities are protected by general legislation. The judicial mechanisms adopted to protect the rights of persons with disabilities include due process (legal remedy through the courts) and recourse procedure by a special agency, dealing with anti-discrimination issues. The non-judicial bodies include: a governmental body (administrative) and independent expert bodies.

General legislation applies to persons with different disabilities with respect to education, employment( not fully implemented, discrimination still exists), the right to marriage, the right to parenthood/family, access to court of law and the right to privacy. As regards political rights, disabled have a voting right but are excluded from holding elected posts. The following benefits are guaranteed by law to persons with disabilities: training, rehabilitation and counselling and employment (partially).

Accessibility

No responsible body exists to observe accessibility in the built environment. The following measures have been promoted by the government in order to facilitate accessibility in the built environment: levelling off pavements, installing lifts and accessible toilets and ensuring access to public places. There are no special transport arrangements for persons with disabilities. The most difficult obstacles, when planning to build accessible environments, are attitudinal factors, economic/budgetary factors, technical factors, lack of legislation and regulations, lack of planning and design capacity, lack of knowledge, research and information, lack of user participation, lack of co-operation from other organizations/institutions and lack of enforcement mechanism. There is no disability awareness component incorporated in the training of planners, architects and construction engineers.

Sign language has no officially recognized status, is not used as the first language in education of deaf people and is not recognised as the main means of communication between deaf persons and others. There are no government measures to encourage media and other forms of public information to make their services accessible to persons with disabilities.

Organizations of persons with disabilities

There is a national umbrella organization. There are legal provisions mandating the representatives of persons with disabilities to participate in policy-making and to work with governmental institutions. Organizations of persons with disabilities are sometimes consulted, when laws and regulations with a disability aspect are being prepared. Consultations occur at the national level. The government gives financial and organizational/logistic support to organisations of persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities participate to a very limited extent in government, legislatures, judicial authorities, political parties and NGOs. The role of organizations of persons with disabilities is to advocate rights and improved services, mobilize persons with disabilities, identify needs and priorities, contribute to public awareness, provide services and promote/organize income generating activities.

Co-ordination of work

There is no national co-ordinating committee or any similar body.

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Contents of the WFD Report | Compare with the following Country Report(s): WBU