Lydia R

Lydia is a 29-year-old disability rights activist who works in the Executive office of the president of Kenya. Her role involves making sure the way government communicates its agenda is inclusive of people with disabilities.

She was also a participant of the IT Bridge Academy programme (run by the Sightsavers-led initiative Inclusive Futures) which helped her to access employment opportunities.

Lydia champions disability rights through the Ladies with Disability Development Forum, which she co-founded with a university friend to support young women with disabilities to access food, medical attention and other services.

“I have a physical disability. I had lots of surgeries on my right side, which is shorter than my left. I needed hand crutches growing up – I still need one, but not all the time.

I had parents who supported me. They helped me go to school, they talked to my teachers; if anyone threatened me with anything like abuse, if I told my parents they would take action.

I remember one of the statements my mom used to make so much when I was young. There were times when people would tell her, ‘But this is a child with disability. Why are you even taking her to school?’ And I remember her saying, ‘I do not just have a child with disability. I have a child like any other and she will be given what every other child is given.’ She used to carry me on her back to school. And sometimes she would wait for me and carry me home.

When I was in hospital, my dad stayed with me for a very long time. I would say I had both very supportive and very overprotective parents.

There were a lot [of challenges] growing up. Some of my classmates, especially the boys, were a bit critical, and sometimes they would say bad things. I was walking with two hand crutches at the time and [some classmates] refused to sit with me in class. They would call me names – they nicknamed me ‘single’ because I have one leg. And they would walk behind me and imitate how I am walking. I didn’t have friends, and that has affected me as an adult.”

From shy student to assertive advocate 

“Near Nyamira is where I was born and raised. After school and university, I started a shop and had a part time job. I was working with women and girls. We started with table banking. We could raise money for each other for school. Or small businesses, or getting grants from disability organisations to support education.  

School was where I met Sharon. She had a disability like me. I was a student leader and I mentored her. Then she joined the Leadership Council as the representative of persons with disability. It was really very small things we were we were doing at the time. For example, we suggested to the university management to construct ramps in all buildings to ensure people with disabilities could access classes, because by then we had we had a student who was using a wheelchair.  

Then when COVID hit, everything shut down. I had established a network because when I was in school, and I advocated for better representation of persons with disability. During the lockdown, most people could not access services, and then the people with disability that we knew started to call us and say we need help. We can’t access medical services. We can’t access A, B, C, D.  

Because we had established networks, we had local leaders we had met. One was a person with disability, so she understood what it meant to be a person with disability in lockdown, and she helped us with resources. And we sought permission from the local administration;  we used to give sanitary products to women with disabilities, and free food. 

We continued after COVID when things became open again. We had been doing things informally and then in 2023 August we said, ‘Why can’t we register ourselves?’ So we registered as a youth group. And we started to formally engage. And things went on like that.  

I’m very thankful for the people you meet along the journey of life – people like Sharon. When I met her, she was the first friend with a disability I had. She has the passion for people with disability, just like I do. She shared her platform with me, her networks with me, and now I was able to see things in a different light.”  

Why young people with disabilities should be included in global development 

“Firstly, they are human beings. They’re human beings like any other human, and deserve everything a normal human being deserves.   

And secondly, the youth have the energy but do not have the ‘how’. The older people have the ‘how’ but not the energy. So the ‘how’ combined with the energy of youth will help us achieve things faster. If you include the young people, they are the ones who know the recent technologies. We need to combine the two to advance. That ensures mentorship, and that ensures that we are all advancing as a society. So that is my mantra as to why young people should be included. They have the energy and the most current skills to support the work that has been done by generations before.”

Changing attitudes towards disability in Kenya

“There are a lot of stereotypes around disability, and I want to demystify them. I want to raise awareness of the fact that people with disabilities are human beings, irrespective of who they are and what their background is.  

There is a gap in awareness [of disability issues] in Kenya – people are not interacting with people with disabilities because they are not aware of the issues or understand the challenges.  

I think people still have the belief that when you have a disability, it’s some sort of a curse and involves being an outcast. People tend to avoid families that are bringing up children with disability. And children need to be protected from people laughing at them. From people intimidating them.   

There is no legal framework… we need more legislation. We need support to get employment for people with disabilities as there are a lot of problems with unemployment and more opportunities are needed.  

As a person with a disability I am aware that there are people who need sign language and need braille and need different accessibility formats. I am now working on establishing a disability communications unit in the government.  

My question is always – how can my skills help me advocate for what I care about? How can I introduce inclusive communications practices into government communication? It is so important to do this because the government has power and influence. I now work in the national government communication centre (since March) so I can have a say in how the to communicate the government agenda to citizens. ”