In Kenya, the need to protect the rights of children with disabilities becomes extreme due to the following risk factors:
1. The proportion of doctors in the population is one doctor per 100,000 inhabitants (Kenya Demographic and Health Survey – 2004) and health services are low-level and expensive. This forces many to cure themselves by traditional methods using medicinal herbs or resorting to pseudoreligious practices. Disabled children generally receive neither specific care nor treatment in relation to general health problems.
2. Vaccination reaches about 75% of the population nationally (Kenya Expanded Programme on Immunization Report – 2005). Children who do not have access to vaccination programmes are more exposed to post-birth causes of disability.
3. Cultural practices, traditional beliefs and lack of school education lead to a difficult relationship with disability especially in children, seen as carriers of curse, bad luck, evil eye, etc. This makes it very difficult to identify and access children with disabilities that are often hidden from families and therefore invisible to the community of origin itself.
4. The number of disabled children who have access to school education is still very low as there are only 3-4 special classes dedicated to them per district. Many children with a slight disability are at home without school education and starting work. It is estimated that only 2% of disabled people have access to rehabilitation and appropriate basic services (UK DFID report – February 2002).