Kenya Joins the World to Mark the “world’s cerebral Palsy day

Cerebral palsy is marked on 9 th October every year, families of affected victims and other
people gather in different places in order to give support to the minors who are affected.
Cerebral palsy is caused by abnormal development of the brain or damage to the developing
brain they affect the ability of a child to control or move muscles. Stakeholders at Naivasha
town gathered together in order to encourage people to accept the victims, also pleading to
the society to learn to appreciate the minors affected as they are discriminated.
‘once you get such a child, the society does not accept the condition of the child even for
the first 3 years. You find even a husband decimates you, the society and the neighbours
too. We are facing a lot of challenges; we are doing this walking create awareness outskirts
the town so that to inform people that the children we have are children we gave birth to
like others. We carried their pregnancies like the other normal children for 9 months’, Lucy
Wangare, a parent to a victim said.
Cerebral palsy patients need proper maintenance and care, of most important clothing and
the type of food they take should be special of which it is expensive to cater for such needs.
‘A child suffering from cerebral palsy needs diapers, sometimes tied with pieces of clothing
because there are no diapers. There is no food, such a child needs special diet. You can’t
give the child githeri bought by most mothers the street markets. You may eat the diet but
not the child who is suffering from cerebral palsy’, Lucy Wangare added.
Lack of affordable drugs is the main problem affecting the families of the victims. They
urged the government to support them in medication by ensuring enough drugs are
distributed for use by minors affected by cerebral palsy.
‘those drugs, in case they are decreased in price it can favour us. You find that at times you
play both roles of parents in a house. When the child’s situation is critical, you find yourself
taking the child to the ward hospital. If the maintenance and expenses would have been
reduced it would help us a lot’, Beatrice Mwangi, chairperson NCP said.
A nursing officer at Naivasha sub-county hospital, Benjamin Mwaura claimed that about
70% of minors in the therapy department, are suffering from cerebral palsy. Few trained
occupational therapists can hardly cope with huge number of patients, stating there are a
few number of staff at the hospital to manage the situation for now.
‘we manage 200 or more cases, out of those cases 60-70% are a cause of cerebral palsy. You
see that most of the clients are children or people with cerebral palsy’, Benjamin Mwaura, a
nursing officer Naivasha sub-county hospital said.
‘we have been taking care of the children, but we are caring them in a way that is better
because we are few. For now, am alone, there is a large number of cerebral palsy children.
We have about 300 children but for now they are 100 in the moment’, Joseph Kaira, an
occupational therapist at the Naivasha sub-county hospital said.