Deaf people in Nakuru have threatened to boycott the ongoing massive voter registration exercise by IEBC saying the government has ignored their pleas.
They added that they have not been involved in the registration exercise and that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has not bothered to look into their requirements.
“There are no interpreters at the registration centres and even if one sought to register, they cannot communicate with the officials conducting the exercise," said Martin Njoroge, a sign language teacher.
Njoroge pointed out that no one had reached to the deaf community even in advertisements or through their church campaigns.
“We feel left out and yet there are more than 300,000 deaf persons in the country. This is a significant number in changing the votes of particular politicians. We also matter,” said Njoroge.
They were was speaking to the press in an exclusive interview on Sunday where they challenged the government to include them in their programmes.
“How many people are in the county assembly who cannot speak? Yet when they pass their laws on deaf people, how do they expect them to be interpreted down to us? We are even left out in the laws that are governing us,” said Aggrey Boto.
Boto said they should also be considered in manual jobs in offices.
“We are unable to professional courses as no universities are willing to go the extra cost of having interpreters in class for us,” he added