State to crack-down on cartels profiteering from street beggars

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A cop feeding a disabled street beggar.The state is set to begin a crackdown on persons ferrying disabled people from Tanzania to reduce them to beggars PHOTO COURTESY

People who take advantage of the vulnerability of the disabled and ferry them to streets to beg have been put on notice by the government.

This comes amidst revelations that the cartel was ferrying disabled people from Tanzania to come to beg in the streets of Nairobi.

Speaking during the celebrations of world wheelchair day, Principal secretary in the ministry of Labour Nelson Marwa warned them to desist from such tendencies or else the government will take decisive action against them.

He said that it is a criminal offense for some people to engage in such activities by taking advantage of the disabled, warning that those culpable must stop or else they will face the full force of the law.

“There are abled people who drop people with disability at  any various joints across the country for  them the gain from that, let it be clear that  the government will not allow  this madness to continue,” Marwa said

“The government  will stop this madness, we will go for them.”He added

On the other hand, legislators including Dennittah Ghati who is representing people with disabilities in parliament and Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi disputed the 2019 Census results pointing that the results are inaccurate indicating that people with disabilities are not less than one million.

They insisted that Census exercise for people with disability, must be repeated saying that according to their projection, the population is hitting 6.5 million people.

Wanyonyi urged the government to provide a free wheelchair to people living with disability adding that the wheelchairs which are available are pretty expensive for common Mwananchi.

“The government must provide a free wheelchair, these commodities are not cheap, not  locally available,” Wanyonyi said

The legislators also urged the government to harness a policy that is friendly to people living with disabilities, in terms of buildings both at the national level and county level also streamline transport and communication sectors for them to thrive without discomfort.

In 2018, the former Nairobi county youth affairs CEC Janet Ouko said that the majority of the beggars in the streets of Nairobi were disabled and were being ferried from neighboring Tanzania.

Reports indicate that the cartels were taking advantage of the relaxed immigration laws in Kenya with most of the victims being duped to believe that the Kenyan government pays an allowance for disabled people.

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