Kenya and the CRPD

Kenya was among the 44 countries to sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) when it first opened for signature on March 30, 2007. It ratified the CRPD on May 5, 2008. Kenya did not sign the Optional Protocol, which allows the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to hear and see individual complainants from ratifying countries. 

Kenya initially owed its first state report in 2010, but did not submit it to the CRPD Committee until April 2012. This initial process of reports and review is currently concluding, with a closed briefing of Kenyan Disabled Persons’ Organizations (DPOs) on August 18, 2015, a public review of the initial state report from Kenya on August 18-19, 2015, and the Concluding Observations for Kenya to be adopted on August 28, 2015.

CRPD Report Process

1. Under Article 35 of the Convention, parties to the CRPD must submit State Reports to the CRPD Committee within two years of ratification. These State Reports are to contain positive developments as well as challenges that the country is having in meeting the obligations of the CRPD.
2. Additionally, DPOs in the country have the ability to submit alternative reports, also known as Shadow Reports, to the CRPD Committee for consideration along with the official State Report.
3. In accordance with Article 36 of the Convention, the CRPD Committee reviews these reports and issues Concluding Observations to make suggestions and recommendations to the country in order to help them meet their obligations under the CRPD.
4. After this initial State Report, parties must submit follow up State Reports to the CRPD Committee at least every four years.

Attached Documents

The attached documents below include Kenya’s initial state party report, submitted on April 3, 2012, and various “Shadow” or “Alternative” reports that were submitted later in 2014 and 2015 by Kenyan DPOs and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. There is also a submission by the Mental Disability Advocacy Center, an international human rights organization based in Budapest, Hungary. The CRPD Committee’s own May 22, 2015 List of Issues (LOI), which is primarily a list of questions that the Committee felt had not been answered with regard to CRPD implementation, and Kenya’s Response to LOIs are attached. Finally, the Committee’s Concluding Observations on the implementation of the CRPD in Kenya, issued on September 4, 2015, are also attached.