Half of disabled Kenyan babies killed

Nearly half of Kenyan mothers with disabled children were forced to kill them, a new study has reportedly revealed.

According to BBC, the two-year study that was carried out by the charity, Disability Rights International, also found that the mothers were largely blamed for their children's disabilities.

More than two thirds of the mothers said that the disabled children were often seen as a “curse”.

The mothers told the researchers that they had been accused of sinning and brought the “curse” upon themselves.

The study did not, however, reveal the proportion of parents who actually ended their disabled babies' lives, said the report.

Many of the killings were committed in secret and often went unreported.

A report by the Star newspaper said that some parents hid their disabled children from the public as they feared stigmatisation.

An educationist in Embu east sub-county recently urged the government to take action against parents who did not take their disabled children to

school.

A joint report by the Kenya Institute of Special Education and the Ministry of Education conducted between 2016 and 2017 showed that Kenya was still ill-equipped to support disabled learners.

NEWS24