The Government plans to introduce a disability rights charter to strengthen inclusion and guide the next phase of disability rights reforms, Dr Isaac Mwaura has said.

Speaking during a Diversity Benchmarking Focus Group Session at the African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI) in Nairobi, the Head of the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Disability Rights said the proposed charter would support efforts to advance equity and improve the participation of persons with disabilities.

“We will launch a disability charter and set the pace for disability rights,” Dr Mwaura declared, adding that the initiative would align with the government’s ‘Usawa ni Sawa’ agenda.

The announcement comes as public and private institutions face growing pressure to address barriers affecting persons with disabilities in employment, education, public services, and access to information.

Further, Dr Mwaura insisted that the government also needed to assess progress made in recent years and identify areas requiring further action.

He emphasised the importance of reaching persons with disabilities at the grassroots to ensure they understand government programmes and can benefit from available services.

The National Diversity Management Framework and Diversity Index initiative will provide a platform for institutions to review their inclusion practices and develop action plans.

The charter’s impact will depend on the commitments it sets out, the institutions responsible for implementation, and how progress is measured.

On the other hand, institutions have been urged to treat disability as an issue of concern rather than an issue affecting only a small section of society and make inclusion part of their everyday operations.

Speaking during the focus group session, Anthony Mwangi, KISE Deputy Director of Finance and Administration, noted that disability could affect people at different stages of life, making inclusion a concern for everyone.

Mwangi described disability as an ‘open club’ that anyone could join through changing circumstances, stressing that institutions need to create environments that accommodate people with different abilities instead of waiting until support is required.

The approach applies to workplaces, schools and public services, where inaccessible facilities, communication barriers and inadequate support can prevent persons with disabilities from participating fully.

On the other hand, Digital Accessibility Is Everyone’s Responsibility, British High Commission Representative Charles Juma demanded that organisations must make digital accessibility a management priority rather than leave it to ICT departments.

Juma insisted that institutions needed to embed accessibility across their operations to create opportunities for persons with disabilities.

He pointed out that accessible websites were only one part of the wider responsibility to ensure that digital systems and services could be used by everyone.

“If we want to create opportunities for persons with disabilities in our organisations, our societies, government and business, then let’s think about it as an entire organisational issue,” he urged.

Additionally, Juma highlighted that accessibility should influence decisions on technology, recruitment, communication, and service delivery.

Digital platforms that are incompatible with screen readers, inaccessible online forms, and poorly designed documents can prevent persons with disabilities from accessing information and opportunities,” cautioned Juma.

He therefore emphasised that institutions needed to move beyond treating accessibility as a technical issue handled exclusively by ICT teams.

Concurrently, Dr Anthony Akoto, Women’s Rights Adviser at the Executive Office of the President demanded that women must have a central role in diversity and inclusion efforts.

Speaking at the diversity benchmarking session, Dr. Akoto said institutions could not claim to promote inclusion while leaving women behind.

“We cannot talk about inclusivity. You cannot talk about diversity when we leave out women,” he asserted.

Therefore, Dr Akoto called for women to participate in discussions and contribute to decisions shaping the country’s inclusion agenda in a meeting that brought together representatives from government, business, academia and other institutions to develop benchmarks for measuring diversity management.

Notably, women’s participation in leadership, employment, and decision-making remains an important consideration when assessing whether institutions are translating inclusion commitments into practice.

The initiative seeks to encourage organisations to review their policies, identify barriers and develop action plans to improve representation.

To this regard, Dr Akoto reiterated that women needed to be actively involved in the process rather than treated as an afterthought.

The discussions form part of wider efforts by the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Disability Rights to strengthen inclusion across institutions.

Similarly, Dr. Linda Okolo, Kenya Airways Diversity Initiative Lead called for greater workplace awareness of disability, saying stigma continues to discourage people from seeking support and disclosing their needs.

She maintained that organisations needed to move beyond treating inclusion as a regulatory requirement and make it part of workplace culture.

“Employees and their families could be affected by disability in ways employers often overlook,” warned Dr. Okolo.

She added that some employees were persons with disabilities, while others cared for children or relatives who required additional support.

Dr. Okolo further argued that reducing stigma and misconceptions would encourage more people to seek assistance while highlighting the need to recognise neurodiversity and understand the different ways people learn, communicate and process information.

Generally, the discussions focused on how institutions could improve their diversity management practices under the National Diversity Management Framework and Diversity Index initiative.

Dr Okolo said employers needed to examine recruitment, workplace accessibility and staff support to ensure people with different needs could participate fully, as greater awareness should be matched by practical measures to make workplaces more inclusive.

On his part, Gerald Alwanga, official at the State Department for Culture, the Arts and Heritage said Kenya’s diversity agenda must recognise the country’s cultural differences, including languages, beliefs and traditions, while emphasizing that culture was central to understanding communities and promoting inclusion across institutions.

Alwanga established that cultural diversity went beyond festivals to include values, communication, and belief systems saying, “We cannot talk about diversity without mentioning culture”.

He reported that the department supported initiatives to preserve and promote the country’s diverse cultural heritage through festivals and other activities, as institutions need to understand the communities they served when designing policies and delivering public services.

In addition, Alwanga mentioned that language barriers and limited understanding of cultural differences can affect how people access information and participate in public programmes.

He reaffirmed that the department would continue supporting the initiative because cultural diversity was central to its mandate, as recognising cultural differences is an important step towards making institutions more inclusive.

Meanwhile, the meeting brought together stakeholders from government, business, and academia to develop benchmarks for assessing diversity and inclusion.

by Michael Omondi