THE SILENT CRY OF DEAF GIRLS AND WOMEN

DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE SEVERAL DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE AGAINST DEAF GIRLS AND WOMEN IN KENYA

Summary of most recently cases

A Nyahururu court has deferred hearing of a defilement case for the fourth time, as there was no sign language interpreter for the complainant of the case, a 17-year-old deaf and dumb girl Resident magistrate Willy Cheruiyot was on Thursday February 11, 2016 forced to suspend the case facing Elijah Kamau yet again, and he expressed disappointment that the court seemed to not put effort to ensure availability of a sign language interpreter for the complainant to testify. One attempt that the court made at securing an interpreter to assist was when it summoned a former teacher of the girl only identified as Betty, who taught her when she attended a school near her home area in Sipili.  Appearing in court the teacher declined the request, citing a busy schedule at the school. Kamau is being accused of repeatedly defiling the teenager on different days in August 2014 at Maina village in Laikipia County. According to her brother who attended court, the girl was forced to drop out of school following the incident as she fell pregnant, and afterwards was forced to stay home and care for the newborn however she did not get her justice.

Another 14 year-old deaf girl was hospitalized in Dec 2015 following complications that likely resulted from a secret FGM exercise. The girl, said to have undergone the outlawed practice in Kirawi village, Marakwet East, She had been taken to a dispensary but was referred to Kapsowar Mission Hospital where she was scheduled for an operation. Doctors said she bled while at a special school in the area, after she stopped passing urine, a complication associated with female genital mutilation. It clear that the Deaf girl was forced to go through FGM without know side effects of this process.

In Mombasa May 11,2015 Police had arrested two suspects who gang raped a deaf girl in Likoni Mombasa. Likoni OCPD Willy Simba says the two raped her in a rental house. They gave her six sweets, and they both raped her in turns and it’s unfortunately after thy were arrested the case has never go further.

Background & PROBLEM STATEMENT

Many cases of sexual abuse against deaf children in Kenya go unreported because of breakdown of communication between the victims, education officials, law enforcers and parents. Their appeals for help have been literally fallen on deaf ears.

Discriminatory attitudes remain a major barrier to the full inclusion of deaf women and girls’ efforts to rebuild a functioning society, and sometimes local chiefs discouraged them from reporting incidents to police and instead pressed for informal mediation, which did not result in changes in behavior and allowed the violence to continue. A number of well-documented factors have made it virtually impossible to successfully prosecute rape for all women. These include police corruption, the lack of necessary police forms to file cases, the requirement for medical examination, and the reluctance of some medical examiners to testify during trials.

 The Kenya judicial system’s barriers to effective prosecution are compounded for not only Deaf women but to women with disabilities in general, who may be unable to communicate to others that they were raped, or to travel to police posts. Recognizing the specific vulnerabilities of persons with disabilities, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obligates the state to take all appropriate measures to protect them from exploitation, violence, and abuse, within and outside the home. For example child and family protection units at police stations often lack the resources such as transportation or sign language interpretation to follow up on cases, particularly in rural areas. In turn, access to Deaf child support enforcement mechanisms is even more difficult for Deaf girls and women who may need sign language interpreters to reach police stations.

African Union’s Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons, which obligates states to provide “special protection for and assistance to internally displaced persons with special needs, including … persons with disabilities.” Kenya  has signed and ratified several international laws including the protocol on women’s rights to the African Charter, which contains a specific article on women with disabilities.

               

The constitution of Kenya 2010 guarantees fundamental rights to persons with disabilities. The constitution states that, “Persons with disabilities have a right to respect and human dignity, and the State and society shall take appropriate measures to ensure that they realize their full mental and physical potential’’.

Despite the strong level of participation by persons with disabilities in national and local government, including in parliament, persons with disabilities especially the Deaf persons cannot fully access government services and programs. Major barriers to the realization of the rights enshrined in the law include disagreements between disabled persons’ organizations and various government agencies over the enforceability of the Persons with Disabilities Act 2003 and the ineffective monitoring and complaints mechanisms of the National Council for Disability.

However hospital and clinic staff are sometimes hostile toward deaf women and girls due to communication berries, others experienced discrimination. Nurses made derogatory remarks, including questioning why a woman with disability would ever engage in sex or have a child. Health care personnel discouraged them from seeking reproductive health and family planning services.,and tey don’t ubderstand that Literacy is another factor adversely affecting health care for the Deaf women and girls. Since English is a second language for many Deaf individuals and since they are not able to hear the language, reading can be difficult.

Characteristics of Deaf culture can lead to difficulties in the delivery of healthcare. Interpersonal interactions between hearing healthcare providers and Deaf patients especially women may be awkward if the healthcare provider does not understand the rules and behaviors of Deaf culture. For example, the provider may be perceived as impolite if they do not maintain eye contact when speaking to a Deaf person. They may be considered rude if they exclude a Deaf person from a conversation or fail to convey information that a hearing person would have, such as a knock on the door. 

                                                            

RECOMMENDATION TO THE GOVERNMENT

·         Ensure that national and local government plans for return, settlement adequately address the needs of persons with disabilities, in particular Deaf women including access to health care and support for their education and livelihoods.

·         Undertake targeted efforts to inform Deaf women and girls about mainstream government programs and services and encourage their participation. This may include arranging appropriate transportation and providing Kenyan sign language interpreters.

·         Promote access for Deaf women and girls to mainstream initiatives addressing sexual and gender-based violence, access to justice, reproductive health, FGM and HIV/AIDS.

·         Amend the Persons with Disabilities Act 2003 and other relevant laws to fully align with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Provide regulations for the implementation and enforcement of the Act in line with the UNCRPD.

·         Collect data on the number of Deaf women and girls benefitting from government programs and services and use this data to develop more inclusive programs for them.

·         Allocate sufficient funds to gender and disability programs, including for services for Deaf girls and women who experience FGM, sexual and gender-based violence.

·         Strengthen the role of government officials at all levels representing persons with disabilities and disabled persons’ organizations in planning meetings, thematic working groups and decision-making processes to ensure that the perspectives of persons with disabilities, particularly Deaf women, are included in all aspects of programs.

·         Take measures to fight stigma and discrimination, for example through media and public education programs about the rights of persons with disabilities, particularly Deaf women.

·         Make public institutions such as police stations and hospitals more accessible for persons with disabilities, particularly Deaf women and girls. Ensure that police stations and hospitals have sign language interpreters.

·         Monitor programs more closely to ensure that women with disabilities are actually benefiting from livelihood support initiatives and other government programs and services. This should include developing indicators to track outreach to Deaf women.