Hon. Raila Odinga has been in the forefront in championing for the rights of persons with disabilities. His party the Orange Democratic Movement(ODM) broke new grounds by being the first to include persons with disabilities in its structures. – By Wilson Wambua.
In addition ODM helped in the push for inclusion of the various clauses in the constitution relating to the rights of persons with disabilities. When he was Prime Minister, he created the office of the advisor on special interest groups specifically to deal with matters disability.
His party was the first to create the position of secretary for disability affairs, something that has been replicated in all other political parties ever since. He also helped organize the first ever prime ministers roundtable for persons with disabilities, a historic milestone in the advancement of the rights of the people.
In view of the forgoing, we wish to hereby commend the manner in which the revised constitutional amendment bill 2020 has guaranteed our representation in the national assembly, by the reservation of 4 slots i.e two men and two women to represent various categories of persons with disabilities. This is a substansive gain to the millions of our constituents across the country.
However, we note with concern some few typos in that, in constituting the senate, there was the erroneous deletion of article 98(1) (D) with regards to the two slots of a man and a woman to represent persons with disabilities in the senate.
Nothing that the proposed senate is a much stronger house that shall superintend over 35% of all govt revenue into 47 counties, it follows that persons with disabilities, 79% of who live in the said counties, deserve representation in such an august house.
It`s therefore our considered opinion that the two positions be reinstated, and that further, the county govt Act be amended to guarantee similar representation of one man and one woman in all of the 47 county assemblies across the country. We also call upon the amendment of the persons with disabilities, and the employment acts, to make it mandatory that 5% of all appointive positions be reserved for persons with disabilities.
We have also noted that the BBI constitutional amendment bill has some few typos that need to be cleaned up as follows;
- In clause 51, sub article (6) is amended to increase the period that the equalization fund from
twentytothirtyyears but the sub article isn`t properly referenced. - In the second schedule of the bill, the clause 1 erroneously refers to article 87(7) instead of 89(7) with regards to the need for IEBC to ensure that in the delimitation of constituencies and wards, all interested parties are involved, and that as much as possible, the population quota is adhered to Article 87(7) doesn`t actually exist.
- Clause 5 of the second schedule leaves out Murang`a as one of the counties in whose constituency (Mathioya) needs to be protected.
In conclusion, we would like to reiterate our support for this initiative, and call upon the drafters to clean up these and any other typos before the bill is finally submitted to the IEBC.
