During the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in December last year, H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta officially launched the Council’s new registration system. The President asserted that the system’s goal is to deter fraud, enhance reporting structure for accountability, and also generate adequate socio-economic data for planning purposes.
The President also appealed to county governments to consider waiving the costs of disability assessments at county health facilities, which is a requirement for registration. Council is engaging the Council of Governors on this waiver issue raised by the President.
To implement this Presidential directive, Council is developing a roadmap to fully rollout the system. Among the key issues in this roadmap:
i. New disability assessment guideline
• The registration of persons with disabilities at the counties via the new system has also been informed by the Ministry of Health’s new disability assessment and categorization guidelines. These guidelines have been designed to standardize the disability assessment process across the country.
• Once these guidelines are fully rolled out, the Director of Medical Services (DMS) signature will be fully devolved to the county medical officers. Already, the Ministry of Health, through the facilitation of Clinton Health Access Initiative, carried out a countrywide dissemination exercise of these guidelines to county medical officers last week.
ii. Defining the threshold for registration as a person with disability
• The new assessment guidelines are meant for various stakeholders (insurance companies, military etc.), including the Council. Hence, the guidelines do not determine whether an individual assessed qualifies for registration.
• For purposes of the statutory definition of a person qualifying for registration, the Council, as directed by the Head of State, has already written to our Cabinet Secretary recalling the draft registration (amendments) regulations 2020 for expert-driven consultations informing the threshold for registration.
With this being a policy issue, this process will be subjected to both stakeholder and public participation.
iii. New registration system
• The new system had been developed and validated by a team of stakeholders including our ministry’s ICT and also the Presidential team ahead of the Presidential launch.
• The Council fully operationalized the new system, putting an end to the use of the old system.
• The rollout of the new card has not kicked off. Hence, the old card is still valid and in use. New persons with disabilities who get registered under the new system will receive a waiting card. Until the old MOH assessment guidelines are fully replaced with the new, registration will still continue using the old guidelines.
• After the gazettement of the registration regulations, replacement of the old card with the new card across the country will take place for approx. a year. The old card will be invalid after we have managed to migrate a substantial number of people to the new system, an exercise which will also involve among others a proof-of-life.
• When the time comes for the migration exercise, persons already registered will be required to present themselves at our county offices carrying their old card, disability medical assessment report not older than 4 years, a passport photo and be registered using the new registration form.
We shall continue to keep the public posted on the progress and activities done.
