A United Kingdom –based organisation has lamented that children with disability in the country are still marginalised and lack access to essential services.
Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD), an NGO working in Kenya, said many parents and relatives of children with disability are hiding them denying them help.
Mbita and Siaya programme officer Samson Ang’ienda said there are cases of children chained by their parents with some locked in cages and hidden from the public.
“We have cases where parents have dug pits where children are hidden during the day and transferred to houses at night,” he said.
Children were being treated like this because of what we thought they were traditionally. They were either taboos, curses or punishment for our wrong doings, he said.
Ang’ienda spoke during a meeting with media at the LCD offices in Kisumu Town on Tuesday. He urged parents to stop the act.
He said many children with disability have not been registered in their local provincial administration office making it difficult for the organisations and government to reach them.
“Most families are still ashamed of their children living with disabilities and are hiding them inside the houses but they should know that disability is not inability," Ang’ienda said.
He said 2,050 girls with disability in 50 primary schools in Nyanza will benefit from a Sh276 million project. The three-year project is aimed at sponsoring the girls' education.
The project is funded by the Department for International Development, through the Girls’ Education Challenge. Ang’ienda has also urged education ministry to integrate students living with disabilities in mainstream schools.
“Children with disability drop out of schools because of poor facilities. They suffer discrimination from their parents and the society and most special schools are far away from their homes,” Ang’ienda said.
He asked the national government to revise the curriculum and provide better facilities in schools to accommodate disabled students.