Category: Disability rights

  • The New Jairos Jiri: A Discombobulating Tragedy

    Warning! What I am about to narrate may be very unsettling. I was seated together with a group of friends from college watching television when normal programming was disrupted by a very noisy jingle with the following words: “Driven by the desire to see an equal and inclusive society,, we are pleased to make the […]

  • Spare a Thought for Vengai’s dream

    Introduction: There are times when I feel very powerless. In such moments, maybe Mike Oliver of blessed memory would have said “if I had a hammer”. The activist in me is in agony after reading this article. As a lawyer, my first instinct would have been to write a case commentary but unfortunately, this case […]

  • My Blind Life in a Sighted World: Proud of My White can

    Yesterday was the international White Can Safety day. Growing up before going to school, I used to hear that blind people use walking sticks to find their way. I however never understood the logic behind the use of a walking stick and at home I just knew my environment. Of course, many times, I would […]

  • My Blind Life in a Sighted World: Educated and illiterate?

    As a matter of principle, I have found attempts to teach me to use a pen very oppressive. I find it quite discomfiting that with all my education, the sighted world continues to treat me as an illiterate person.

  • My blind life in a sighted world: Just like all the others?)

    One of the things which I grew up struggling with was a constant reminder from my parents, teachers and the society at large that I was “just like all the others”. Sometimes, this created in me the desire to indeed be like others even if it meant subjecting myself to conditions which were almost synonymous […]

  • Sugar-coating Oppression

    If the disability movement in Africa should be reinvigorated, then it must guard against euphemisms such as “differently abled persons”.