Kenya News Agency:
The Senate Education Committee has made commitments to uphold, protect, support, and advance the rights of children with disabilities.
The committee visited Uasin Gishu County Special Needs Education (SNE) institutions to acquaint members of the committee with the implementation status of the sector policy for learners and trainees with disabilities.
While addressing the press at the county headquarters, Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii applauded the committee for its special duty in fact-finding on children with special needs, with regard to accessing and experiencing quality education.
“As a county, we are sensitive to these people, and we feel they are also human beings that require serious legislation that will take care of their needs,” he noted.
Joe Nyutu, the Chairperson of the Senate Education Committee, said that the committee is considering a bill on learners with special needs, and Eldoret happens to have quite a number of institutions that take care of such learners.
“We decided to come to visit these institutions so that we could pick up some ideas in order to input them into the bill that we have,” he said.
According to Nyutu, the program of feeding school-going children with milk in Uasin Gishu has improved enrolment in learning institutions, as it has been empirically proven in the past that school feeding programs help improve enrolment for children in schools.
He has also called for the expansion of the feeding program to cover more schools in more counties.
Accompanying the chairperson were committee members, including Vice Chair Peris Tobiko (nominated senator), Prof. Margaret Kamar (nominated), Agnes Kavindu Muthama (Machakos), and Johnes Mwaruma (Taita Taveta).
On her part, Prof. Kamar noted that inclusive education encourages all children to learn successfully regardless of disability, and we have institutions that are hosting students not only from the county but from all over the country.
She said that the committee on education is currently considering bills that touch on learners with disabilities, as this is a responsibility for all of us as a country.