`A JOURNAL OF SOCIAL & RELIGIOUS CONCERN`

Volume 13 No. 1 (1998)

Society's marginalised

The handicapped and marginalisation

The views of Mr. Burton Odera

This issue of Wajibu deals with the marginalised in society. Although a physical disability should not automatically lead to marginalisation, it is a fact that(in a country like ours where even people without handicaps have a hard time just surviving( those who are disabled in one way or another are often led to engage in undesirable activities such as begging in the streets. To shed more light on the connection between disability and marginalisation, Wajibu's chief editor spoke with Mr. Burton Odera, the National Executive Officer of the Association of the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK). Mr. Odera has firsthand knowledge of the difficulties faced by people with disabilities, not only because he has been with APDK since 1986, but he has himself had to overcome the limitations posed by a handicap ever since he was struck by polio at the age of three.
Mr. Odera spoke eloquently on a wide variety of topics having to do with people with disabilities.

The causes of disability

There is a whole range of causes for disability. In the past these causes were chiefly medical: polio was one of the chief causes and so were birth defects caused by lack of prenatal and neonatal care. Children were born at home, and so problems which today would be easily rectified by immediate medical care, were in the past left unattended, often causing permanent harm, such as brain damage that led to cerebral palsy. There is hope that polio will soon be eradicated in Kenya due to the Government's strong commitment to immunisation. However, lack of access to medical facilities is still a great problem in many areas of our country, so congenital birth defects continue to be a cause of deformities. Birth defects can also be the result of malnutrition in expectant mothers. Poverty is therefore another chief cause of disabilities, affecting not only expectant women but also children. Malnutrition in young children can, for example, cause physical deformities such as bow-leggedness.

Unfortunately, when at least some traditional causes of handicaps are disappearing, other (modern) causes are claiming victims. Today one of the chief causes for disabilities is accidents: for every person that dies on our roads, many more end up being physically disabled!

The situation of the disabled in the past

Mr. Odera holds strong views on the rights of the disabled. He illustrated the evolution in the awareness of these rights by the history of the treatment of the disability issue in Kenya. Prior to the colonial period there were certain communities where a child with a handicap was considered to be suffering this way due to an offence against an ancestor; and recourse to witchdoctors to establish the cause was not uncommon. However, on the whole, children with disabilities were accepted as being part of the community: they belonged and were cushioned by the system of the extended family.

During the colonial period, when labour was exploited by the colonial authorities, there was no room for the physically handicapped. The missionaries, on the other hand, were moved by pity for the disabled . Their appeal for those with handicaps went to the heart, to the emotions. Together with other philanthropic organisations, they collected crippled people from the streets and took over the Mbagathi Road Crippled Training Centre from the International Red Cross. Their efforts were concentrated on making the physically disabled self-reliant by making them employable. The people with disabilities were provided with skills such as telephone operation (for the blind), carpentry, handicraft (leather work, for instance) and typing. The whole thing was based on charity. The APDK finds its origin way back in 1958 from those initiatives.

After independence, the policy on disability shifted. With the establishment of the Vocational Rehabilitation Training Programme (V.R.T.P.), Mbagathi Road became the pilot scheme for V.R.T.P. in Kenya. Efforts came to be concentrated not so much on training (this was left more to government institutions) as on prevention (the Association has been in the forefront of the campaign to eradicate polio) and on rehabilitation of persons with physical disability. There has been a greater emphasis on the rights of the disabled to become full-fledged members of the society, to remove all obstacles to their full participation.

The situation of the disabled at present

Although appreciating the progress made by APDK towards greater awareness about the rights of the disabled, Mr. Odera is very much aware that Kenya still has a long road to travel before the handicapped are no longer in danger of becoming marginalised. He talked at length about the question of accessibility of people with disability to places of work and to services. It is well known that many physically disabled people have difficulty getting about. But it is not enough to provide them with wheelchairs and to do away with curbs on some of Nairobi's streets. What good are lowered curbs if motorists park their cars on them? And of what good is a wheelchair when one's office is on the third floor of a building and the building has no level access? In such circumstances wheelchairs can themselves become handicaps.

Our roads are also a problem. Many of them are so full of potholes that it is difficult enough to manoeuver a car on them, let alone a wheelchair. Then again, three-quarters of our disabled persons live in places like Mathare Valley and Korogocho where proper roads are non-existent. In fact, says Mr. Odera, some handicapped people who own wheelchairs have come to the APDK and asked them to find a buyer for these vehicles! So one should not be surprised to find a well-dressed handicapped man still going about on all fours. It is probably the only way he can manage to get to the office. And at least he is self-reliant and needs no one to get him to where he wants to go.

Mr. Odera is concerned about the repercussions of the present state of insecurity and of ethnocentrism on the handicapped. If(as some people advocate(people should go back where they came from, and the disabled will have to go back to the cocoon of the small clan, they will miss opportunities for education and skill enhancement. We will have taken a backward step and will be in danger of losing what we have been able to gain so far, at least as far as the area of participation in societal activities is concerned. Disabled peoples' prgrammes cannot thrive in a state of insecurity.

The challenge the disabled pose to the rest of society

Mr. Odera talked about the challenge people with disability pose, first of all to their families, and then to the rest of society. He recalls the attitude of his own father with respect to his disability. He would proudly point to his son and say: "You see my son there, jumping about with a stick? I would rather have him than ten boys who are thieves." Questioned about the influence of cultural attitudes as far as disabled people are concerned, Mr. Odera feels that one's culture is less important in this respect than one's mind-set. He is aware that there are homes in some of the posh areas of the city where a disabled person is hidden away, out of sight of anyone. The parents have taken the attitude of: "What did I do to deserve such a child?" So they are ashamed of him or her. Naturally, such an attitude does little for the self-respect of the person with a disability.

Basically, what is needed in Kenya is a change of perception with respect to the disabled. They should not be looked upon as objects of pity but as persons like you and me whose rights need to be respected. Like for you and me, their basic needs are food,] shelter and clothing; what is required to cater for their special needs is an enabling environment for full participation.

An enabling requirement includes a change in our laws. For example, at the moment disabled people have no guarantee against discrimination since they are not mentioned in the legislation dealing with this matter. Building codes should also be amended to make easy access for the disabled a requirement. In addition, companies hiring people with disabilities should be given incentives, for instance, a tax reduction.

Mr. Odera points out that, due to the increasing numbers of disabled people (according to WHO statistics, 500 million in the world at present) the rights of the handicapped can no longer be ignored by society. Says he: "Either you give us services today, or you will fall down with the increasing weight of our demands tomorrow."

Mr. Odera's message to us

So what is the message of the disabled to the rest of Kenyans? This is what Mr. Odera says on their behalf:

"The level of development in this country and the level of awareness with respect to the plight of people with disabilities creates an extremely perplexing situation with regard to service provision to that sector. By "accident" quite a number of people with disabilities have been able to reach "up there." The issue of services is an issue of rights. It is something to demand and fight for, not something for which to beg."

A JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONCERN
Published Quarterly by DR. GERALD J. WANJOHI
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