Nominated MP Harold Kipchumba has called for firm commitment to the inclusion of people with disabilities in decision making across the governance spectrum.
The ODM legislator was speaking in a panel discussion during a Webinar hosted by the Centre for Parliamentary Studies and Training (CPST) on Tuesday.
He expressed concern that though Parliament had enacted the Persons with Disabilities Act,2025, there was no framework to enforce it’s implementation.
“This matter tests not just our laws, but our honesty as a people: the inclusion of persons with disabilities in governance. Kenya is not short of commitments. We have signed conventions, passed laws, and drafted policies.But rights on paper do not change lives, implementation does,” he noted.
He argued that though the new law was progressive, it remained incomplete until a framework to ensure compliance is put in place.
“We legislate inclusion at 5%, but practice it at 2%.We cannot enforce compliance outside Parliament when we are non-compliant inside it,” he pointed out.
The lawmaker who also chairs a forum of parents with children with disabilities, revealed that the Kenya Disability Parliamentary Association (KEDIPA) had upon the enactment of the law approached the Speaker to advocate for the establishment of a Parliamentary Committee to oversee the implementation of the Act.
“As KEDIPA, we recently approached the Speaker to push for the establishment of a Disability Inclusion Committee to oversee MDAs on disability inclusion,” the lawmaker revealed.
Currently, oversight on inclusion of PWD in the governance spectrum is spearheaded by the Selection Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity, along other aspects of diversity to ensure equal opportunities for all.
The lawmaker who was nominated to the National Assembly last year was joined at the forum by experts in disability matters.
Among them was Dr. Samuel Kabue, a Commissioner in the Church Commission on International Affairs at the World Council of Churches who also serves as the Chairman of the Caucus on Disability Rights Advocacy (CDRA) and Ms.Elizabeth Chesang, the Chairperson of National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPLWD).
The experts decried that not withstanding the provisions in the constitution and the law disability inclusion was almost always an afterthought.
The Webinar themed ‘Beyond Tokenism: Strategically Mainstreaming Disability Inclusion in Governance drew an audience of over 200 participants both on the CPST forum and on Parliament’s YouTube Channel.
The participants sought to know how the implementation of the PWD Act would help expedite the implementation of Constitutional provisions for the PWD constituency.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010 requires that Persons with Disabilities occupy at least 5% of elective and appointive positions. The Persons with Disabilities Act 2025 reinforces this, with enforcement of 5% employment and political participartion.
The forum also amplified the need to provide address the underepresentation of persons with psychosocial, intellectual, and neurodevelopmental disabilities who continue to face stigma based on the medical and pathologizing model of disability.
