By Andrew Walyaula
Kenya joined the rest of the world in marking the International Day of Sign Language yesterday, September 23.
During the event, parents of deaf and hearing impaired children were urged to learn Kenya Sign Language (KSL).
Addressing the press at Murang’a School for the Hearing Impaired, parent’s representative in the Kenya Society for Deaf Children (KSDC), Geoffrey Wagitho urged the government to direct more funds in such initiatives to ease the lives of the children at home.
Wagitho further observed that due to the communication barrier at home, many students do not want to go home during their holidays since no one can communicate with them.
He acknowledged the hardness that the parents undergo in accepting the disabilities of their children.
“The issue of disabilities is not easy for parents, but as soon as they realize something could be wrong, they should visit a doctor so that the child can be given a proper diagnosis,” he noted.
Wagitho requested the National Council of Persons with Disabilities to continuously issue Disability Cards to students in special needs schools and insisted that the students should not go to their offices for Disability Cards.
Speaking while issuing out 60 hearing aids to 30 students in primary schools ,the National Chairman for the KSDC, Francis Ng’ang’a advised parents with deaf children to take them to school.
He requested the government to put in more efforts in locating all deaf children to ensure they go to school because education is every child’s rights.
‘There are 120 primary and secondary schools all over the country for hearing impaired children,’ he said.
The Director KSDC, Rhoda Kabiti noted that a very small percentage of the over 200,000 deaf children in the country were enrolled in the school.
“The government should take punitive action against parents who refuse to enroll their disabled children school,” Kabiti said.
