Count the disabled and employ them, for they count too

While addressing World Bank officials and editors earlier this year, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Director-General Zachary Mwangi indicated that his agency will this month recruit more than 164,000 people to conduct the countrywide census slated for August.

As this period approaches, it is, indeed, encouraging to see the intentional and positive engagement between the bureau and persons with disabilities, through their umbrella organisation, United Disabled Persons of Kenya, and other representative groups.

These efforts are meant to ensure that no one will be left uncounted in the National Population and Housing Census. This is especially important because persons with disabilities have been documented as a demographic that often goes uncounted for various reasons.

The primary reason given for that sad state of affairs is stigma, where you find some people not wanting to identify themselves as persons with disabilities or even others being hidden by their caregivers, hence missing an opportunity to be counted.

Worth noting, however, and importantly so, is that, for the first time, Kenya is using the Washington Group (WG) Short Set of questions to identify the number of persons with disabilities in the country.

The disability sector has, over the years, indicated that the current statistics, where it is said that 3.5 per cent (1,330,366) of the population is made up of persons with disabilities, is an undercounting.

As such, we have over the years advocated for the use of the WG Short Set of questions with the hope that this will ensure the availability of quality data that can inform interventions.

Indeed, the WG Short Set of questions has been recommended by United Nations agencies, organisations of persons with disabilities, the civil society and independent experts to ensure international comparability over time for the purposes of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and inclusive development.

The six questions are designed to identify, in a census or survey format, people with a disability. The questions ask whether people have difficulty performing basic universal activities, including seeing, hearing, walking, remembering, self-care, and communication.

The intention of asking the questions is to identify those at greater risk than the general population for participation restrictions due to the presence of difficulties.

Using the six questions deviates from what has been used previously, whereby a question such as “Do you have a disability?” and other terminologies that were used to describe persons with disability — such as “mute”, “dumb” or “mentally retarded” — have been flagged as stigmatising and, in essence, would result in fewer persons identifying with them.

It’s also positive to note that, recently, the Washington Group on Disability Statistics trained members of the KNBS and other key stakeholders on ensuring that persons with disabilities are counted.

WG is a UN city group established under the United Nations Statistical Commission to address the urgent need for cross-nationally comparable population-based measures of disability.

It’s hoped that this strengthening of capacity on the use of the WG Short Set of questions will cascade to the enumerators, so that the census goes on smoothly and good data on persons with disabilities is collected.

The KNBS has indicated that it needs about 135,000 enumerators, 27,000 content supervisors and 2,700 ICT supervisors. This is a great opportunity also for persons with disabilities to be part of the census.

The bureau being an equal opportunity employer, it’s the wish of the disability sector to work hand in hand with it to ensure that, as the law stipulates, there are at least five per cent persons with disabilities in the exercise — right from the supervisory positions to trainers and also down to the enumerator levels.

Data is critical in implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The statistics help states to implement policies that ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Also, as far as the implementation of the SDGs is concerned, there is a call to significantly increase the availability of high-quality, inclusive, timely and reliable data disaggregated by, among other indicators, disability.

As we gear up to have everyone counted in August, therefore, let us also have a significant percentage of persons with disabilities not only being counted but also doing the counting.

Mr Gitonga is chief executive officer, United Disabled Persons of Kenya. [email protected] Ms Elizabeth Ombati is an International Disability Alliance fellow and disability rights advocate, [email protected]