A Bill is in Parliament to force private and public employers to reserve at least five percent of jobs for persons with disabilities.
The Persons with Disabilities Bill 2022 is sponsored by Majority leader Amos Kimunya.
Certainly Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) must be supported in Kenya but this Bill needs to be fine-tuned and made more precise.
There are various grey areas that need to be clarified.
Surveys indicate that there are between 2.2% and 4.6% of PWDs in Kenya. Why then have 5% of jobs reserved for PWDs?
In addition PWDs are more often in rural areas where there is little formal employment. Around one-third of PWDs work in family businesses. How will they be affected?
And how do we define disabled? Is it just the deaf, blind and physically impaired? Or do we also include the most common disabilities associated with respiratory disease, cancer, diabetes, malnutrition, HIV and injuries from mines, car crashes, etc?
Moreover, as the population ages, disabilities increase. Should the elderly be favoured for recruitment?
The Persons with Disabilities Bill has its heart in the right place but it needs to define its applications more precisely.
Quote of the day: "The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression."
W. E. B. Du Bois
The African-American sociologist was born on February 23, 1868
