Gender ministry ill placed to handle disabled

By Phitalis Were Masakhwe

While persons with disabilities were still celebrating that the Finance Minister had considered them in the Budget, the Head of Civil Service shifted the disability unit from the Ministry of Home Affairs back to Gender and Children Affairs ministry.

Not that Gender and Children Affairs is not a ministry enough, but we all know where it is placed in terms of real power, substance and "pecking order" in the Grand Coalition Government.

One would not have any beef with the Government if the move by Civil Service boss proves it will help upgrade rights and service delivery for persons with disabilities.

A serious analysis of the move, however, shows it may in fact reverse the gains. It should, however, be noted the short-lived shift of the unit to the VP’s Office did not have much effect. Save for the physical movement, it was not accompanied by the necessary technical staff and resources to give the sector a facelift and real visibility in Government. Under the VP’s Office, the unit had only one officer.

Despite that, the VP moved with speed to gazette most of the rules and regulations meant to make the Persons with Disability Act 2003 operational. He gazetted some of the rules even before gazetting sections of the Act the same rules are supposed to bring into effect. You cannot use rules and regulations alone to sue if for instance your rights to access public buildings are curtailed. You need to quote relevant sections of the Act.

Back to the Gender ministry. It substantively has two dockets — Gender and Children Affairs — both headed by a secretary. The Coalition Government has these positions in virtually all the 40-plus ministries.

The idea behind the creation of these designations was to underscore the importance Government attaches to the respective thematic areas in those ministries. An Assistant Commissioner for Gender and Social Services heads the disability section.

Now this is not even a division within the ministry but some nondescript desk. What does this mean in terms of funding, staffing, policy directions and overall importance in the Coalition Government’s overall agenda for the more than three million Kenyans with disabilities?

When the Coalition was being negotiated, people with disabilities appealed to President Kibaki and Prime Minster Raila Odinga to appoint a qualified person at a higher level in Government — preferably at the level of Permanent Secretary — to be disability advisor. They also requested that the docket be situated either at the Office of the President or Prime Minister’s.

They made it clear to the two principals that disability, just like gender, goes beyond a single ministry or sector. Therefore, for strong leadership, coordination and harmonisation of the affairs of the sector, the docket needs to be in a central and superior office.

Experience elsewhere shows a remarkable difference. Closer home, Uganda has a Ministry of Disability and Elderly Affairs running state funded nationwide community based rehabilitation programmes, among other initiatives. Malawi has the same model, with a ministry headed by a person with a disability.

In South Africa, disability docket is in the office of the president — with a presidential advisor who has all along been a person with a disability. In Namibia, disability docket is in the PM’s office with similar arrangement as those of South Africa. Senegal has equal if not similar situation to that of South Africa. This makes it possible for all government ministries and agencies in those countries to integrate disability concerns and account for the same to either the presidency or premier because these offices have oversight roles over other ministries.

Now, can the Ministry of Agriculture honour summons from the Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs to account on what they are doing with farmers with disabilities? Can Gender ministry supervise performance contracts to ensure all public officials account on inclusion and dealings with the disability agenda?

The writer is a sociologist with a physical disability.

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