Current Situation
- According to World Health Organization (WHO), persons with disabilities in developing countries such as Kenya, form 15% of the country’s total population.
- 56% of Kenyan Population is currently living under the poverty line i.e. with incomes of less than one dollar a day. This result in hunger, malnutrition, inaccessible basic health services etc. These are the major causes of disorders in brain development. As a result, the population of persons with mental disabilities in Kenya form 60 – 70% of the total population of the disabled.
- Health deprivation in mother and child is one of the major causes of mental disabilities in Kenya. Around 270 million children, or just over 14 percent of all children in developing countries, have no access to health-care services. UNICEF year 2005 report on the State Of The World’s Children, states that in sub-Saharan Africa, one in four children either does not receive any of the six principal immunizations or has no access to treatment if they suffer from ailment.
- With a Kenyan population at 32 million people, persons with disabilities are estimated at 4.8 million (15%) out of which 60% i.e. 2.9 million are living with mental disabilities.
- Out of these 2.9 million Kenyans with mental disabilities, less than 1% only are able to access care and rehabilitation services.
- Only 23,000 pupils (Aged between 10 – 30yrs) are accessing education out of the less than 1% accessing care and rehabilitation.
- Only 23,000 pupils with mental disabilities are in 734 special schools and units for persons with mental disabilities in the country. The 38 small homes and private schools are currently caring for only 438 persons.
- This confirms the sad plight of more than 2.8 million persons with mental disabilities who are rejected by parents, families and abandoned to live in inhumane and abusive environments.
- Majority of the 2.8 million are orphaned and vulnerable because of high rate of divorce and separation of their parents, and HIV/AIDS highly affects persons with mental disabilities who are prone to rape, incest and other sexual violations and exploitations.
- Hardly any specialized support services are available to them and families; especially in the rural and urban slums, where the majority live.
- Their rights are not recognised and their access to even the most basic of needs fully depends on support of a third party.
- Persons with mental disabilities experience rape, incest, sodomy and oral sex that expose them to HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Unwanted Children.
- Solutions to most of their suffering are known; but inadequate meagre resources have hindered provision of their most needed basic support services.