The disabled want 20 seats in House

The disabled have asked the Committee of Experts and Parliament to give them at least 20 seats in the next parliament.

This, the disabled said, should comprise 15 seats in the National Assembly through mixed representation and five seats in the Senate. The group also wants at least one representative in all constitutional commissions.

Representatives of the disabled told a news conference in Nairobi that the review of the draft in Naivasha by MPs had watered down their rights as proposed in the CoE’s harmonised draft.

Inasmuch as the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitution Review had reached a political consensus, the disabled too had to be represented, the chairman of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, Mr Kibaya Laibuta, said.
“Our point is that if the PSC found it necessary to make a numerical specification on the number of MPs, the number of MPs with disabilities should similarly be entrenched in the Constitution,” he said
Mr Phitalis Were Masakhwe, a disabled person who sits in the Reference Group, accused the PSC of “tokenism” in its allocation of seats to the disabled.
He said the 47 seats allocated to women, one each per county, was possible because women were represented at the PSC’s meeting in Naivasha.

“We support the (constitution-making) process, but we want it to be as inclusive as it can be,” said Mr Masakhwe.

The Kenya National Commission of Human Rights chairperson, Dr Florence Jaoko, said that unless there was a definite clause in the Constitution for the disabled, “it will be very difficult for them to get elected.”

Dr Jaoko, in an interview with the Nation, backed the proportional representation as proposed by the CoE saying it was only fair that their right to political representation is prescribed by the Constitution.
At the news conference, the representatives of at least three million disabled Kenyans termed the PSC’s proposal to share out the 12 slots for nominated MPs among “youth, workers” and the disabled, as “untenable and ambiguous.”

This clause, they said, is likely to be manipulated by political parties.

“The number 12 has no basis for purposes of ensuring adequate representation,” they said.

Mr Peter Mwaura, of the Albino Society of Kenya added: “If you don’t have people to represent us in Parliament, then it means we are unlikely to benefit from the laws made in that House.”

The CoE’s draft had proposed a five percent representation of disabled in all elective and appointive posts.

The use of Kenyan Sign Language, the disabled said, was important and the PSC “should not have deleted this provision.”

They also took issue with the PSC’s definition of their status saying it ought to recognise them as “rights-holders rather than ill persons requiring medical intervention.”

Two commissioners from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Lawrence Mute and Samuel Tororey addressed the news conference.
The petition has been presented to the CoE as it sits down to refine the PSC’s draft as it gets ready for its presentation to Parliament. A copy of the petition is also with the PSC.
If the lobbying fails, the grievances of the disabled will have to be sorted out by the Reference Group in which the disabled are represented.
Meanwhile, the National Civil Society Congress has termed the non-contentious issues amended by the PSC in the COE draft as “retrogressive.”
The lobby also tore into the removal of the Ethics and Integrity Commission from the draft arguing that it was a pointer to the lawmakers’ “lack of enthusiasm in the fight against corruption.”