To:

Media Owners Association

Minister for Information, Communication and Technology
Communications Authority of Kenya
Cofek
Cc Office of the Ombudsman Kenya

We write to you this open letter noting the continuous violation of the right to access information
by our Media Houses. This violation subjected upon the Kenyan Deaf Community is a complete
disregard to human rights of the Deaf and curtails their right to access information.
Deaf community in Kenya uses Kenyan Sign Language(KSL) to communicate. It follows
therefore that Television Stations MUST provide a Sign Languate Interpreter inset and/or
subtitles. This is enshrined in the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) Act of 2003, Section 39.
Furthermore the UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities which has been
ratified by Kenya in Article 9 states that "State Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure
PWDs access on EQUAL BASIS with others ........information and communication. This shall
include identificafion and ELIMINATION of OBSTACLES and BARRIERS to
ACCESSIBILITY".

Unfortunately the Media has isolated Deaf Kenyans who have very little or no access to
communication. The PWDs Act also calls for the provision of interpreters during educational
programmes and events of National importance, which has NOT been witnessed in Kenya. The
Constitution gives every Kenyan the right to access information (Article 35). Moreover Article
54(c) States that a PWD is entitled to REASONABLE access to information.

A lot of us are depressed mostly because of the feeling were more disabled than others, and
have no hope. I want you to imagine you were deaf and you needed to hear what your President
is doing everywhere he goes, what the minister said regarding the state of insecurity in Kenya, or
to the worst if there was need to have a state of emergency in Kenya. Deaf Kenyans rely on the
media for such information.

It is under this background that we petition you to compel Media Houses to follow the law and
give consideration to the accessibility needs of Deaf Kenyans by providing a Sign Language
inset and/or closed captioning in the news, educational programmes and other events of National
importance.

You should know how difficult it is to go through days when you dont have the support or
access you need. Not having a community to back you up. experiencing peoples ignorance or
having them inattentive to your needs or your wonderful personality just because you cant hear.

Its the countless numbers of impoverished Deaf people in Kenya, living under oppressive and
deteriorated conditions, with the government that take time ratifying the United Nations
Convention of Rights for People with Disabilities and not providing the financial, educational,
and physical access Deaf people need that hurts me coupled by the Broadcast Media giving a
deaf ear to the plight of the deaf.