Disabled Persons Want Inclusion in Covid 19 Initiatives

The disabled persons in Migori County claim the local emergency Covid-19 response committee is ignoring them in the fight against the virus.
County chairman for the association of people with disability, Migori Chapter, Mr. Albert Matara said in a statement to KNA that the committee had completely left out PWDs in the fight against the killer virus yet they were more vulnerable than any other human being in the region.
Speaking on phone this morning, Mr. Matara claimed that since the start of the campaigns to curb the spread of the disease in Migori, none of the committee leadership including the chairman governor Okoth Obado had as much as mentioned about distributing the mandatory protective gears like masks, sanitisers and soaps to the PWDs.
“We only hear that people are being provided with water containers for hand washing, sanitisers and soaps but nobody has gotten in touch with the association leaders to ensure that the interests of our members are also taken care of,” said Matara.
The official noted that some of the PWDs were blind and cannot walk to where the items are being distributed and therefore needed special teams to reach them in their abodes to address their problems in regards to the coronavirus streak.
He said many of them were seriously exposed to the dangers of being infected by the virus unless the government made quick interventions to protect them in their homes.
It can also be understood that some of the PWDs were doing small businesses like selling mitumba and hawking food in markets, businesses that are now grounded therefore the PWDs are staying at home with no proper income.
“Their families want to eat, clothe, pay rent and have good medical care yet no one is coming out to assist them with food and even the basic health care like supplying them with gears to protect them from the virus,” said Matara, adding:
Meanwhile, the fight against the spread of the virus went a notch higher in the region with medical officers subjecting the local population to thorough screening.
The Ministry of health with the assistance of some of the local non-governmental organizations personnel mounted several screening points along the Kisii-Migori-Isebania highway where motorists, passengers and pedestrians were asked to go through a mandatory hand-thermo screening in order to know their temperature status.
The same exercise has also been heightened at the Isebania border point and other border crossing points with a view to screening the human traffic walking in and out of the country along the common Kenya/Tanzania border.
County Commissioner Joseph Rotich who is also co-chairing the emergency covid-19 response committee with Governor Obado warned the local population against flouting the directives imposed by government through the advice of the ministry of health.
He also called on the residents to report any case involving Kenyans arriving in their villages from counties that have been slapped with a total lockdown such as Nairobi and Mombasa.
“It is the responsibility of every resident here to ensure that this virus is locked completely from spreading to this region. For this reason we want every person here to be very vigilant and report anybody coming to your area from Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale which have been declared hot spots for the virus,” said Rotich.
By George Agimba