Disabled People's Rights being violated in Kenya

According to human rights groups, Kenya has been breaking an international convention on the treatment of disabled people. A recent CNN documentary has shown the decay in the country’s mental health system, mainly exposing the living conditions that mentally and intellectually disabled people are being forced to live in. Kenya ratified CRPD, the UN’s Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in 2008. According to the CRPD, “The state is responsible for ensuring that confinement and restraint by private actors based on disability does not occur and must take appropriate action including positive measures to safeguard against such violations." An example of human rights violations found in the CNN documentary was that the CNN crew found a dead person lying next to a live person with a psychological disability in a seclusion cell at the Mathari psychiatric hospital. According to a report sent to the UN general assembly, solitary confinement cannot be justified as a form of treatment or therapy and is in itself a violation of human rights. Although, the Kenyan government is acknowledging the problem and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights plans a “rapid response.” After CNN tried reaching the president and couldn’t get a response, Kenya’s government spokesperson, Alfred Mutua, said that the government is looking into the Mathari hospital to see what is going on. He also stated that their have been allegations by patients of rape by other patients and forced medication. Kenya’s director of Mental Health, who is ultimately in charge of Mathari hospital, has yet to respond to CNN’s repeated phone calls. I believe that it is the state’s responsibility to assist in taking care of and protecting the disabled. Secluding mentally challenged humans in cells is a clear violation of their human rights. It is also a violation because they have no say in what is happening in their own life and are not being allowed to articulate their rights. The most positive news is that the government is publicly stating that they will take action. Mutua states that the problem doesn't lie with Mathari alone and that "massive reform" is needed to change Kenya's mental health system. He also says, "I think we have got a lot of structural problems that have to be tackled." This means that the Kenyan government is acknowledging their problems and trying to fix them.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/02/kenya.health/index.html?iref=allsearch