Teacher Notes Issue No 13 Pg 2

Kenya: The Background

In This Issue
  • Kenya is in the east of Africa. The capital is Nairobi. The African peoples of Kenya account for 98% of the population. English and Swahili are the official languages.* There are three main indigenous language groups, Bantu (the largest), Nilotic and Cushitic.
     
  • Since independence in 1963 the government has rallied the people under a national motto of harambee or pulling together based on the principle of self help.*
     
  • Religions: Protestant 38%, Roman Catholic 28%, Indigenous beliefs 26%, Muslims 7%, other 1% *
     
  • Poverty level: Kenya ranks 135 out of 174 countries on human poverty levels. **
     

 

 

Liturgies

 

 

Disability in Kenya
  • Kenya ranks 162 out of 191 countries in terms of healthy life expectancy which averages 39.3 years (includes disability adjustment). **
     
  • 7% - 10% of the world population lives with disability, which means 500 million people. The vast majority of these, 80%, live in developing countries like Kenya. ***
     
  • Only 1% - 2% of people with disability have access to rehabilitation services. ***

Due to poverty, malnutrition, inadequacy of pre-natal care, fast accelerating AIDS and associated diseases, many women in Kenya give birth at home to babies who are born with physical and/or mental disability.

Lack of access to medical care and preventative treatment for infants who suffer from diseases like malaria, measles or meningitis results in disability, blindness and deafness in children. For example, only 38% of babies receive immunisation against measles. ***

Myths and superstition surrounding disability accelerate the problem. For example, it is still believed by some that epilepsy is related to witchcraft, so that many sufferers do not even seek medical advice for fear of exposure and instead consult traditional healers who cannot help. ***

Many children with disability are treated as outcasts. Some are kept hidden in homes. Some are even thrown out and abandoned.

 

Case study of disability in Kenya and a mother's devotion - the first Therese

Therese Wangira, aged 20, is deaf, physically and mentally disabled. Unlike some disabled young people, Therese is cared for lovingly by Josephine, her mother. Because of a lack of social skills, Therese has no life outside the home. Josephine has to do everything for Therese - wash, clothe and feed her. When Josephine has to go out, Therese has to be locked inside the house for her own safety.

Their poverty is extreme. There is no father to support them. They survive by growing ground-nuts and maize in the small plot outside their house. Josephine has a long walk to collect water each day. They live in a mud hut with a grass roof. There are holes in the thatch and when it rains part of the wall subside&. Josephine cooks on a fire which fills the windowless room with smoke. The room is divided with a torn piece of material. Behind the curtain Josephine and Therese sleep on mats on the bare earthen floor.

 Josephine is strengthened by her own personal faith and receives visits from a Catholic African Sister who now offers support. Josephine is often weighed down by her devotion to Therese. She says: "This is my cross, and I carry it daily."

With earlier intervention and support Therese and her mother could have experienced a much higher quality of life.

* Encyclopaedia Brittanica 1994-2000 ** United Nations Development Programme *** World Health Organisation