Who we are
The Kenya National Association of the Deaf (KNAD) is a legal Non- Governmental Organization (NGO). The organization was registered in 1987 with the government of Kenya under the Registrar of Societies Act of 1968 rule 4. Its membership is derived from affiliated regional association with members drawn from the grassroots Deaf community country wide. Originally, KNAD benefited from financial and technical support by the Swedish Association of the Deaf (SDR) through the Swedish International Development Agency SIDA.
Deaf Education in Kenya
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) in their policy Guideline stipulates that the main goal of educating deaf children is to give them the same possibilities of participating in the society in adult life as other people have and not actually to be the same. Indeed this is also in line with the KNAD’s mandates however, in their years of existence has realized that in order to achieve this expectation a lot need to be done with education and capacity on policy reform advocacy.
Deaf Population in Kenya
A recent survey of all disabled people in the country was conducted and shows that about 4.6% of Kenyans experience some sort of disability (Kenya National Survey for Persons with Disabilities, 2008). In a population of about 37 million people, it is estimated that about 1.6% or around 600,000 Kenyans are Deaf. Exact figures are yet to be obtained because there is no specific census in place to know the number of Deaf population in the country.