Persons living with disability in Bungoma County have been urged to know their rights and the programmes the government is offering to them.
Speaking on Tuesday at Tongaren market grounds on Tuesday while marking the UN International Day for Persons with Disabilities, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities Bungoma County Coordinator, Prisca Akoth said it is a high time persons living with disabilities knew their rights and demand for them.
Akoth said many persons living with disabilities do not know their rights and the services the government is offering to them affecting their access to the services.
She called on the persons living with disabilities to go for assessment in Bungoma and Webuye County Referral Hospitals so that they can be registered and access their services and programmes with ease.
The coordinator said that in the last five years they have assessed and registered 14,112 persons living with disabilities in Bungoma County, asking the ones who have not been assessed and registered to come out and do so.
She asked the ministry of health to gazette more hospitals so that more clients can be assessed and served accordingly pointing out that only Bungoma and Webuye County Referral Hospitals have been gazetted to assess Persons living with Disabilities, adding that this was slowing down assessment of persons living with disability.
Speaking also at the same function, the Chairman of Persons living with Disabilities, Rex Simiyu asked the government to include Persons living with Disabilities in employment and various committees and boards.
Simiyu called on parents with Children living with Disabilities to ensure they take them to school saying that is the only way they will become important members of society in future and become self-reliant.
Benson Wafula Liru, a lecturer at Kibabii University said that disability is not inability, calling on all Persons living with Disabilities to ensure they get education which is a key to their life in future.
By Maureen Imbayi
