Against all odds: The abilities of women with disabilities

When Ms Lizzie Kiama was pregnant, she feared going to hospital.

She got a physical disability through a car accident. Ms Kiama “experienced internalised shame that somehow, it was not okay for me to be parading my pregnancy in my disabled body.”

This fear of stigma and feeling unequal pushed her into foregoing her ante-natal check-ups, an action she says caused her gestational diabetes.

Ms Kiama is the managing trustee of This-Ability Trust, a Kenyan-based organisation that advocates for the rights of women and girls with disabilities.

Her reflection of shame, fear and feeling inadequate mirrors that of many women with disabilities. The obstacles they face every day becomes complicated when they seek to rise to leadership in politics, public and private sector.

They have to scale off the layered stigma; first as women and second as women with disability. Data available on their socioeconomic development gives clear indication that they are a demographic far behind half the mile.

Of the 900,000 Kenyans with some form of disability, 2.5 per cent are women while 1.9 per cent are men, the 2019 Census shows. Further, the Ministry of Education indicates that out of 750,000 school-age children with disabilities, only six per cent are in school.

How well one is educated determines their access to whichever level of paid employment. Often, leadership is a paid role.

Statistics on women with disabilities in leadership in Kenya’s public and private sector are scanty. National Gender and Equality Commission, however, indicates that their employment rate is lower than that of the overall population due to their difficulties in accessing education.

In Kenya, 39 per cent of men are paid employees earning a salary compared to only 18 per cent of women, based on findings from Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising.

In politics, their representation is almost insignificant. United Disabled Persons of Kenya shows that out of the 350 members of Parliament, three are female and two males.

In the Senate, two (male and female) were nominated to represent persons with disabilities, while only 24 females and 18 males were nominated in  the county assemblies in 2017, a drop from 30 females and 32 males in 2013.

We speak to some women who are truly inspirational and despite being abled differently, have achieved their goals and are pushing for change.

Rose Museo - Makueni Woman Representative

Makueni Woman Representative Rose Museo was a consummate leader long before she joined politics.

After college, she worked as an office assistant at a non-governmental organisation in Kibwezi, Makueni County. She then rose to become a programme officer. 

Working with communities at the charity prepared her for the current position.

Mid 2005, she was elected to head the children and women ministry at the Salvation Army’s Nairobi Central Conference, in charge of more than 1,000 churches. This honed her leadership skills.

It is then that she earned the ‘person living with disability’ tag after being involved in a road accident that left her with a broken leg. That notwithstanding, the church re-elected her for the same position in 2010.

While scores overlooked her disability and admired her record in community development work, Ms Museo nursed a low self-esteem for long.  Those who had admired her leadership acumen include Makueni governor Kivutha Kibwana.

In 2011, he interested her in the woman representative position. “At that point, I was not keen on politics. I initially turned down the overtures because I felt the disability disadvantaged me. But the push was so much, I eventually agreed to run for the woman representative position,” tells The Voice.

The biggest challenge Ms Museo faced was lack of funds to traverse the county campaigning. Her competitors also attacked her, dwelling on her disability.

“I organised a funds drives but the response was discouraging. I countered the insults by remaining focused on my agenda. Surprisingly, I campaigned for only three weeks and won,” she chuckles.

Although her voice has not been ignored due to her disability, Ms Museo believes women with disabilities face double challenges when seeking to rise and remain in leadership. They are expected to first surmount challenges like lack of money that disadvantages women, as well as challenges on mobility that impair their campaigning.

She believes society is yet to embrace women with disabilities. It expects them to work extra hard, do something stunning for them to be accepted, she says.

Ms Museo has been prayerful and chosen to deliver on her mandate. Thanks to her past experience working with communities, she has been able to identify communities’ needs and come up with sustainable ways of solving them. She runs a bespoke rain water harvesting campaign that enables households to own affordable water tanks.

She has actively advocated for the mainstreaming of persons with special needs in development.

“We ensure committees of the 65 community-based organisations we work with include persons with disabilities. Importantly, we have rolled out programs that economically empower them. This is besides enabling their mobility through donation of wheelchairs, walking canes and crutches,” she says.

The women rep suggests the creation of mentorship programs where upcoming women are linked with successful female leaders to support women with disabilities to join political, public and private leadership.

Janeth Chepkorir Turgut - Nominated MCA Bomet County

When she was only seven months old, her legs were amputated from just below the knee, following a fire accident.

And as a child while her siblings and other children would be playing, she was confined to watching the unfolding scenario on the side-lines, hardly able to crawl. When it was time to go to school, Bomet Special School, she was fitted with prosthesis.

Janeth Chepkorir Turgut did not, however, allow the pain to put her down. She made a conscious decision early in life that she would scale the heights and perform better than her able peers.

Determined not to be bogged down by societal stereotypes, she was admitted at Olbutyo Girls’ Secondary School and later Moi University where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management.

Coming across her for the first time, one may wonder why she walks with a gait and always in stockings, but on a close look you realise she has a disability.

“It was tough growing up since I could not function like any normal child. I, however, made a decision that I was normal and had to stretch my imagination, put in extra effort in class. I was determined to put to best use what life and God presented me with,” says Ms Turgut. True to form, she made history as the only nominated MCA in the South Rift counties of Bomet, Kericho and Narok, representing people living with disabilities.

Ms Turgut, 32, and a mother of one, has three other children she is educating.

During the interview at her home in Bomet County, she says the best the society can give children with disabilities is education.

“We should not always be complaining as people with disabilities, but go for elective and appointive positions. We are equally gifted,” she says.

Ms Turgut says she drew a lot of inspiration from former Bomet governor the late Dr Joyce Laboso, the first woman to be elected Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and first female Governor for Bomet County. Her aspiration while growing up was to be a manager of a large corporate institution. She went on to be employed at a local outfit before joining Faulu Kenya as a sales representative.

This is where she made a break in leadership in the last General Election.

She applied for nomination as MCA under Jubilee Party. She was the outfit’s campaigner in the South Rift and was nominated to represent people living with disabilities.

“I could not believe I would serve in the legislative arm of the county government until I was sworn in,” says Ms Turgut.

She is both the vice-chairperson of the Public Accounts/Public Investment and the Gender and Social Services committees, besides being a member of the Powers and Privileges and House Business committees.

She says people with disabilities who qualify for elective and professional positions should gun for them.

“Why is it that we have not had one of our own run for the Presidency? Why are persons with disabilities (PWDs) not represented in the Cabinet yet we had it in the first term of the Jubilee administration? Is it because our cadre of people are not applying for these positions? It is a wakeup call for us to go flat out and compete,” she says.

The County Assembly of Bomet has made it easy for PWDs to access the offices and the new chamber.

“The county, under Governor Hillary Barchok, has also progressively awarded tenders to people living with disabilities and offered employment, but discrimination of PWDs in all facets of the society is a challenge we need to face and surmount,” says Ms Turgut.

“Despite the Constitution 2010 providing that we should get five per cent of tenders and employment, we are yet to get there both in the national and county governments,” she reiterates.

She remains hopeful that differently abled will go for elective positions in the next General Election and more will be nominated or appointed in other positions.

Elizabeth Balo - Chairperson ODM Disability League, Tana River

She hated herself as a young girl. In school, they called her all sorts of names befitting animals. Some called her octopus, others called her spider woman, and while others compared her to a monkey because of a physical deformity she suddenly fell victim to.

Elizabeth Balo was not born with disability. Polio struck her at the age of three, shaping her life differently. The 64-year-old mother of three who was her parents’ favourite, suddenly became subject to mockery in those days of ignorance.

"I remember my uncles telling my father not to waste money on me because I was disabled. I did not have a wheelchair then. I moved on all four limbs to and from school," she recounts.

Her father, then a police officer, never gave up on her instead encouraging her to focus on her education. Unfortunately, he died and her uncles plotted to end her studies by leaving her out of her father's benefits. The local chief intervened.

"The chief insisted that my father's wishes had to be fulfilled. That is how I worked my way through secondary school," she says.

Her star would shine bright, soaring in her academics hence, she got a job at a local school as she waited to join college. She saved the salary and used it for college fees.

"I wanted to pursue nursing, but my finances would not allow, so I joined Egoji Teachers College," she says.

Ms Balo has triumphed through stigma and rejection throughout her career.

"I was once rejected by the parents of a man who loved me and had proposed marriage. They claimed I would spread disability in their generation," she recounts.

Her resilience, however, never toned down. She rose to be a head teacher in two primary schools.

Even in retirement, Ms Balo remains one the most vocal heads of the Tana River People with Disability Alliance, where she is the chairperson of the health committee.

In her tenure, she has drafted policies focused on giving free medical care for people with disabilities. She also petitioned the county public service board and the county assembly to offer equal job opportunities for PWDs at the county.

"I realised that most of the people with disability are unattended to because nobody seems to understand us. Some of us speak a different language hence, need to have them as part of the administration," she says.

Ms Balo has managed to fight for PWDs’ rights to access tenders, which have only benefited cartels and rogue county officers for long. She is also the chairperson of the Orange Democratic Movement Disability League. Her views here have spanned changes in policies towards PWDs in politics.

She is feared and adored by many politicians owing to her uncompromising stand on the politics of development.

"I say things as they are, I don't sugar-coat. If I don't like it, I will speak out my stand regardless of how another may interpret it," she says.

Ms Balo looks forward to representing people with disabilities at the Tana River County Assembly in 2022.

Wanja Maina - Disability rights advocate

Wanja Maina has felt the painful pinch of getting into leadership.

She had it once and the experience taught her that resilience, self-confidence, self-value and perseverance is the game in the world of women seeking to lead from the front, especially those with disabilities.

Ms Maina’s right leg was paralysed at an early age following a doctor’s injection. She uses a crutch to support her mobility.

At 26, she got into active politics, campaigning for her political party in the 2017 General Election. Finally, her party nominated her to Murang’a County Assembly to represent persons with disabilities. But then something went wrong.

In July 2017, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) published her nomination. Her name was, however, later omitted from the IEBC’s August 2017, gazette notice of nominated Members of County Assemblies.

She petitioned the IEBC at the Murang’a High Court but her case was dismissed on grounds that the court had no jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter or even transfer it to an appropriate court.

“The whole process was emotionally and financially draining,” she says, “I went totally broke.”

Ms Wanja, now 30, had invested financially in the politics, spending all her money from her small businesses to gain entry into political leadership.

But that was not the only challenge. She had to deal with stigma from the public.

“Some people could tell me I was overstretching my ambitions. That I was still young and should rather try other things that befit me,” she shares.

Ms Wanja is presently using her experience to speak to other women with disabilities aspiring to rise to political leadership.

She also participates in local and international forums where she actively champions for inclusion of persons with disabilities in political leadership, especially the women and youth.

She is particularly concerned about the place of the persons with disabilities in the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which the High Court dismissed on May 13, as unconstitutional and whose judgement its proponents seek to appeal.

“There are no gains for persons with disability in the BBI. Their needs have been excluded yet we are talking about advancing inclusion through the BBI,” she says.

For her, until the women with disabilities are protected from political violence, freed from social stigma, access quality education and paid labour, their challenges to breaking even in leadership will persist.

“We also must strive to end tribalism and corruption. These vices hinder persons with disabilities from enjoying their rights,” she says.

Dr Getrude Musuruve - Nominated Senator, ODM

If you fail to pay attention to Dr Getrude Musuruve, she will ensure her presence is felt.

Being bold and refusing attempts of disdain from anyone is an art of leadership, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) nominated Senator has mastered through the four years she has been in position of legislative power.

Last January, Dr Musuruve went unrecognised as among the present Senators during the burial of late Amani National Congress party leader Musalia Mudavadi's mother.

Instead of whining in silence, the legislator who’s fitted with a left hemi-pelvic prosthetic leg, stood with her crutches, walked to the podium and stood close to the microphone.

The master of ceremony had to give way and just like that, she got the chance to address the mourners who included President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM party leader Raila Odinga.

"Even in Senate, my colleagues know they cannot shut me down when I want my voice to be heard," says the legislator from Kugari, Kakamega County.

Dr Musuruve who joined politics courtesy of her bravery, is a survivor of Ewing's sarcoma, a type of cancer that damages leg and pelvic bones.

She was diagnosed with the disease in 2013 while pursuing her doctorate degree in Mass Communication at Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology, where she also lectured. She also has a degree in special education from Kenyatta University and a master’s degree in applied linguistics from the same institution.

A large part of femur and pelvic on her left leg was, as a result, removed to cut the cancerous tumour. With that, her life changed. She says the fact that she suddenly became disabled was a wake-up call.

 "I felt it was time to reach many people to sensitise them about cancer and disability," she says.

Then an opportunity presented itself. She had attended a leadership forum in her capacity as a don and passionately talked about tribulations of persons living with disabilities. That was a divine moment for her.

ODM Women’s League, chairperson Ms Beth Syengo who was in the forum, was impressed and offered to mentor her into politics. That is how she moved from the lecture halls to the Senate chambers.

To her name is a 2019 Mzalendo Trust award, recognising her for consistently speaking on education matters in Parliament, especially on special education.

Her impressive performance in the House has also earned her international recognition. Last year, she was nominated to co-chair International Parliamentary Network on Education alongside Harriet Baldwin, a Member of Parliament from the United Kingdom.

She has also sponsored bills including Kenya Sign Language Bill, 2021; Sign Language Trainers and Interpreters for the Deaf Bill, 2021 and Special Needs Education Bill, 2021(awaiting publication).

Although Dr Musuruve is educated and well versed with special needs issues, the public see her as an ignorant politician.

"It is distressing when an education stakeholder tells me lies about special needs education and expects me to accept it as truth just because I am a politician," says Dr Musuruve who has 16 years’ experience in special education.

She taught at St. Angela School for the Deaf in Mumias, Kakamega County where she says she experienced the harsh realities of learners with disabilities.

"I feel sad for the deaf. They may do well in education but who will employ them?" she wonders.

She recommends integrating learners with special needs in normal schools. This way, the society will appreciate them for who they are and finally change their attitude towards persons with disabilities, she argues.

She has authored nine books for persons with disabilities, one of which is in Kiswahili.

I Speak for the Deaf, The Hard of the Hearing along with Signing Made Easy for Learners and Instructors, are among the books.

She urges the public to see the capabilities in persons like her instead of discriminating them on the basis of their disability.

"Just because I am walking on crutches doesn’t mean I don't think. Give us the opportunities to lead, that is the only way you will know we are capable and can ably deliver," she says.

Compiled by Pius Maundu, Vitalis Kimutai, Stephen Oduor and Moraa Obiria

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