Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T10:57:49.114Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Disability Rights Activism in Kenya, 1959–1964: History from Below

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Fikru Negash Gebrekidan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article examines the early history of disability rights activism in Kenya. The transitional years from colonialism to independence were a period of great expectations. For persons with disabilities in particular, decolonization held additional possibilities and potential. National independence promised not just majority rule but also an all-inclusive citizenship and the commitment to social justice. Among the visually impaired of Kenya, such collective aspirations led to the birth of the Kenya Union of the Blind in 1959. In 1964, after years of futile correspondence with government officials, the Union organized a street march to the prime minister's office to attract attention to its grievances. The result was a government panel, the Mwendwa Committee for the Care and Rehabilitation of the Disabled, whose published report became the blueprint for social and rehabilitation programs. The government possessed limited resources, and the reforms that ensued were long overdue. Yet the sociohistorical dynamics behind the march are of particular significance. From the social historian's point of view, they affirm not only the historical agency of persons with disabilities, but also the need to recast and broaden the scope of African social history.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article examine les origines historiques de l'activisme pour les droits des invalides au Kenya. Les années de transition entre la colonisation et l'indépendance furent en période de grandes attentes. Pour les invalides en particulier, la décolonisation sembla apporter de nouvelles possibilités et opportunités. L'indépendance nationale promit non seulement la règle de la majorité mais aussi la citoyenneté complète et l'engagement à la justice sociale. Parmi les handicapés de la vue au Kenya, ces aspirations collectives aboutirent à la création de L'Union du Kenya pour les Aveugles en 1959. En 1964, après des années de vaine correspondance avec les responsables du gouvernement, l'Union a organisé une manifestation de rue jusqu'au bureau de Premier Ministre pour attirer l'attention sur ses réclamations. A la suite de cette action a été créé un panel gouvernemental, le comité Mwendwa pour la Réinsertion des Invalides, dont le rapport publié est devenu la référence des programmes de réhabilitation et de rééducation. Le gouvernement possédait peu de ressources et les réformes qui ont suivi étaient bien tardives. Cependant, les dynamiques socio-historiques ayant engendré la manifestation sont d'une importance significative. Du point de vue de l'historien sociologique, elles affirment non seulement la représentation historique des invalides, mais aussi le besoin de recadrer et d'élargir le champ d'étude de l'histoire sociale africaine.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , December 2012 , pp. 103 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

African Union of the Blind (AFUB). 2007. In Collaboration with Kenya Union of the Blind. 2007. “State of Disabled Peoples Rights in Kenya.” Nairobi: African Union of the Blind.Google Scholar
Anderson, Elizabeth Marian. 1968. The Education of Physically Handicapped, Blind, and Deaf Children in East Africa. London: National Fund for Research into Crippling Diseases.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Philip, et al. 2009. “Disability in Kenya: The Nairobi Workshop.” Disability Studies Quarterly 29 (4).Google Scholar
Campbell, Chloe. 2007. Race and Empire: Eugenics in Colonial Kenya. Manchester, U.K: University of Manchester Press.Google Scholar
Daily Nation. 1961. “Mercy Schools Give Hope to Kenya's Blind,” October 8.Google Scholar
Davis, Lennard J., ed. 1997. The Disability Studies Reader. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Grischow, Jeff D. 2011. “Kwame Nkrumah, Disability, and Rehabilitation in Ghana, 1957–1966. Journal of African History 52 (2): 179–99.Google Scholar
Heath, Douglas F. 1948. Blindness in British African and Middk East Territories. London: His Majesty's Stationary Office.Google Scholar
Ingstad, Benedict, and Grut, Lisbet. 2007. See Me and Do Not Forget Me: People with Disabilities in Kenya. Oslo: SINTEF Health Research.Google Scholar
Ingstad, Benedict, and White, Susan, eds. 1995. Disability and Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ingstad, Benedict, and White, Susan, eds. 2007. Disability in Local and Global Words. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
International Labor Office. 1972. “Report to the Government of Kenya on the Development of National Program of Vocational Rehabilitation of the Disabled.” Geneva: International Labor Office.Google Scholar
Kenya Union of the Blind Files. 1959–1964. Nairobi: Kenya Union of the Blind.Google Scholar
Kudlick, Catherine. 2003. “Disability History: Why We Need Another ‘Other.’” American Historical Reviexu 108 (3): 763–93.Google Scholar
Leys, Colin. 1974. Underdevelopment in Kenya: The Political Economy of Neocolonialism. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Livingston, Julie. 2005. Debility and the Moral Imagination in Botswana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Livingston, Julie. 2006. “Insights from an African History of Disability.” Radical History Review 94 (3): 111–26.Google Scholar
Longmore, Paul K. 2003. Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Longmore, Paul K., and Umansky, Lauri. 2001. The New Disability History: American Perspective. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
MacKay, Alexander. 1956. Kenya's Blind Farmers. London: British Empire Society for the Blind.Google Scholar
Maley, Tom. 2004. “Memories of Thika.” British Journal of Visual Impairment 22 (1): 25–31.Google Scholar
Mutugi, Jason M. 2008. “The Story of Jason Mutugi: My Struggle for Education.” Narrated to, and edited by, Kabue, Samuel.Google Scholar
Mwendwa, Eluid Ngala. 1964. Report on the Care and Rehabilitation of the Disabled in Kenya. Nairobi: Ministry of Labor and Social Services.Google Scholar
National Constitutional Conference. 2004. The Draft Constitution of Kenya 2004. Nairobi: Government Printers.Google Scholar
National Council of Law Reporting. 2010. Constitution of Kenya, Revised Edition. Nairobi: Government Printers.Google Scholar
Nkiyangi, John A., and Mbindyo, Joseph. 1982. The Condition of Disabled Persons in Kenya: Results of a National Survey. Nairobi: University of Nairobi Institute of Development Studies.Google Scholar
Oliver, Michael. 1983. Social Work for Disabled People: Practical Social Work. London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Ominde, S. H. 1964. Kenya Education Report. Nairobi: Government Printers.Google Scholar
Radio Netherlands. 2005. “A Good Life: Featuring Josephine Sinyo,” September 16, September 20.Google Scholar
Silla, Eric. 1998. People Are Not the Same: Leprosy and Identity in Twentieth-Century Mali. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Teferra, Tirusew. 2005. Disability in Ethiopia: Issues, Insights, and Implications. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Edwin C. 1998. Social and Cultural Perspectives on Blindness: Barriers to Community Integration. Chicago: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Waliaula, Ken Walibora. 2009. “Negotiating Local Language: Kiswahili and Attitudes towards Disability.” Disability Studies Quarterly 29 (4).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, John. 1964. Traveling Blind. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar