UoN to establish a Disability Centre

“It is high time that the University of Nairobi institutionalizes its approach on how to cater to the needs of Persons living with disability (PWDs) through a disability centre. The centre  will be a first point of contact for PWDs, offer support in how they interact with UoN environment, conduct trainings for them and have tailor made resources,” noted Prof. Kiama

He was speaking in a meeting with the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA) and UoN Disability mainstreaming committee led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Stephen Kiama.

Prof. Kiama elaborated that the University has been meeting the needs of the PWDs in a disjointed manner such that, there’s no central place where the students data is placed. This,  he said will be one of his focus areas to ensure that the University has a disability mainstreaming policy in place and the establishment of the disability centre.

The team from OSIEA led by Mr. Fredrick Ouko, Program Officer, challenged the University to take up this matter not only from a managerial perspective but also involve academia, especially research. He noted that he is an alumnus of UoN and had to drop a course that was in a building that was inaccessible as he is a PWD.  He noted that multidisciplinary research can be conducted to ease the life of PWDs in the University community while coming up with innovative and sustainable solutions.

Mr. Ouko urged the University to think of sustainability even before the Centre has been established, take up the teaching of short courses on disability as a means of the centre’s sustenance.

Prof. Kiama pledged his commitment and support to this end.