Youth with disabilities want representative in Parliament

PWDs  I MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

They argue that the current five legislators for people with disabilities (PWDs) and five for youth in Parliament have not solved their problems, including health, political, social among others.

Fiona Akullu Okello, the co-ordinator of Show Abilities Uganda (SAU), revealed that, "It is a high time that a Member of Parliament for YWDs is considered to be elected from the five representatives of as per the aforementioned provisions on the basis of affirmative action."

SAU is an umbrella body that advocates the participation of YWD in political governance.

Akullu said YWDs have little knowledge about the importance of elections since youth participation is motivated by entertainment and money which YWDs find hard to even access because of mobility or accessibility challenges.

As a consequence, YWDs are excluded from the Electoral Commission (EC) activities. EC has no deliberate efforts to mobilise the already excluded YWDs, they claimed.

Akullu said: "YWD are not included in the electoral register because their disabilities are not recognised for example epilepsy, mental health, the little people in Uganda, are not accepted to be bearers of responsibility, yet they are Ugandans."

She said electing an MP for YWDs would help to provide a unified and integrated system through which they will communicate and co-ordinate their ideas and activities, establish channels in economic, social services and amenities will reach other YWDs.

She said it will encourage YWDs to make informed decisions and hold their leaders accountable, organise other YWDs in Uganda for progressive change, provide a unified and integrated system through which YWDs may communicate and coordinate their ideas and activities.

Alex Ndeezi, the MP for PWDs (Central region), said: "Apparently, the population of PWDs in Uganda has risen to four million.We need the representation PWDs to be raised from five to 10 legislators, to carter for them. Of these 1.2 million have physical impairments, 800,000 are deaf, 700,000 are blind, 20,000 are albinos, and the rest are little people."

Akullu said the current MPs have not helped them in ensuring that Sexual reproductive health rights and services are accessible in hospitals. 

"The little people are among PWDs and those people with physical disabilities can't use the current hospital beds, because they are too high," Akullu said.

Akullu was among the hundreds of youth who gathered as the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations launched the Platform for Youth Inclusion in Politics (PYIP). 

This is aimed at enhancing the engagement and participation of young people in their countries' political discourse over the weekend at Eureka Hotel in Kampala.

PYIP is steered by a coalition consisting of Civil Society Organizations, including, Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA),  Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Action Aid, Global Platforms, Restless Development, Faraja Africa Foundation, IDEAS Uganda, You Lead Summit, Open Space Centre, Inter Party Youth Platform, Youth Coalition on Electoral Democracy(YCED), East African Youth Leaders' Initiative on the ACDEG, among others.

Prosper Mubangizi, the spokesperson for PYIP, said the platform's work will be hinged on five core actions, including voter mobilisation; young people's issues and policy demands; legal framework and electoral justice; monitoring the electoral process; and health of the youth movement.

Mubangizi said: "Young people face great challenges generating accountability from their local leadership because there is no forum in which they can interact regularly and constructively with local and national government leadership."

"There also exist some leadership gaps as elected youth leaders don't represent the interests of the youth and there are limited mentorship and networking opportunities for upcoming leaders," said Mubangizi.

When contacted, the PWDs representative Eastern region, Hellen Asamo, said nobody has blocked the youth with disabilities proposal to get a representative in Parliament because it is a constitutional right.

Asamo explained that MPs play their roles of making laws and policy formulation. However, government agencies sometimes fail to implement the policies including issues of YWDs.

She said Parliament had appropriated funds to the government special grant for PWDs programmes targeted at improving their socio-economic and employment opportunities through income generating activities in since 2007.

The Youth MP, Sarah Babirye Kityo (Central region), said she had contributed to different YWD in addition to other youth-related issues. 

"I have done a lot for YWD despite the meager resources," Kityo said.

"I have helped many YWD through National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda, an umbrella NGO that brings together various categories of persons with disabilities, including those with physical, mental, and sensory impairments," said Kityo.