The five per cent requirement for employing persons with disabilities remains largely unmet in public institutions, with a new assessment showing that only two per cent of workers covered by the review are PWDs.
The finding is part of the 21st cycle of Performance Contracting for the 2024-25 financial year, which was assessed by the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC). A total of 88 institutions submitted their returns, covering 93,506 employees.
Only 1,828 of those employees were persons with disabilities, leaving the public institutions assessed well below the statutory requirement on PWD employment.
The figures further show that women with disabilities continue to have a smaller presence in the workplace. Of the total number of employees with disabilities, only 638 were women, leaving the number of men with disabilities at nearly twice that of women.
NGEC secretary and chief executive officer Purity Ngina said the results point to a difference between what is provided for in policy and what people experience in their daily lives.
“The numbers are telling,” said Ngina, noting the findings exposed the gap between policy commitments and the lived experiences of citizens.
The commission also found that inclusion challenges are not limited to opportunities for employment, but affect how persons with disabilities access essential public services.
An accessibility review carried out from October 2024 to May 2025 covered 35 public and private buildings in seven counties. Eleven of the buildings assessed were found to be inaccessible to persons with disabilities.
The facilities included places used by members of the public to register births, pursue court matters and obtain medical services. Some of the buildings lacked basic facilities that would make movement and access easier, including ramps, accessible washrooms and Braille signage.
The audit also found that tactile walking surfaces, which support people with visual impairments as they navigate buildings, were available in only five of the facilities assessed.
NGEC chairperson Rehema Jaldesa said accessibility should not be viewed as an optional measure for persons with disabilities.
“Accessibility is not a favour extended to persons with disabilities,” said Jaldesa. “It is a constitutional right and a legal obligation.”
The commission further pointed to a fall in the number of public institutions submitting their performance returns. Only 88 institutions reported in the latest cycle, down from 201 in 2023-24 and 390 in 2022-23.
The decline has raised questions about how accurately the assessment reflects the wider public service, since the latest score was based only on institutions that submitted their returns.
The Gender Mainstreaming and Inclusion Index stood at 83 per cent, missing the 85 per cent target by two percentage points.
NGEC cautioned against reading the score as a complete picture of progress across the public service.
“The fewer institutions that report, the harder it becomes to know whether the picture is improving across the public service or only among those that are measuring and reporting their performance,” the commission observed.
The commission attributed part of the drop in reporting to the absence of a policy framework requiring public institutions to carry out gender mainstreaming measures and report on their implementation.