Reforms lock disabled representatives out of decision making organs
Friday September 11 2020
National Council of Persons with Disabilities said representatives of disabled have been removed from decision-making organs of local government entities. Photo | Cyril Ndegeya
Lobbies are up in arms after the government ordered removal of representatives of persons with disabilities from decision-making organs of public entities.
As the government embarks on the restructuring, which cut across the central government entities to the local government agencies, representatives of people with disabilities have been dropped.
“The move has started from the City of Kigali, where the people with disabilities have been dropped and now it has been scaled up countrywide, yet these are the people who understand the ordeals of people with disabilities,” Emmanuel Ndayisaba, executive secretary of the NCPD told Rwanda Today.
On August 23, Minister for the Local Government shared with 21 rural districts the new organisational structures of district, sectors and cells for adoption and approval by the district council and subsequently implemented, under which the representatives of people with disabilities have been dropped.
Mr Ndayisaba said the reforms have affected promotion of social welfare of the people with disabilities across city districts.
“When you look at the changes that have been made at the city of Kigali after the advisors’ council downsized,none of the four remaining counsellors represent people with disabilities, and this was a platform for them to advancing advocacy towards their ordeals” said Mr Ndayisaba.
“Through our representatives in these levels, the advocacy and operations of people with disabilities have been able to run, we have already started engaging the concerning government entities to find a way out because these posts for people with disabilities are guaranteed by the law,” said Ndayisaba.
According to Mr Ndayisaba, unlike the reforms in the local government entities, the government-supported organ of people with disabilities has come to know about the reforms in Kigali city when the reforms have already come into effect.
“We are now pushing to have an enabling mechanism that will allow our people to work in the city of Kigali because we have come to know about these reforms when the reforms have gone into effect,” said Mr Ndayisaba.