Mukono enforces law to ensure PwDs enter buildings with ease

Mukono District authorities have started enforcing a by-law passed three years ago that ensures People with Disabilities (PwDs) access buildings and facilities with ease.

During an interview last week, the council speaker, Mr Emmanuel Mbonye, said many developers in the district were now constructing new buildings that provide dimensioned stair cases, ramps, adequate rails and pathways accessible to PwDs.
The municipality senior physical planner, Mr Hilary Murungi, said previously, buildings were erected without ramps and toilets for PwDs, adding that those that have provisions for the group are at 20 per cent.

Mr Murungu cited Mukono Health Centre IV, Church of Uganda Hospital, Lands offices, church premises, Mukono Bishop schools, Mukono High School and Ferry Primary School, among others.
“We are also educating residents to put up structures accessible for people with disabilities, and in five years from now, everyone should have embraced the idea,” he added.

Other facilities
Ms Sylvia Nasanga, the coordinator for Uganda National Action for Physical Disabilities (UNAPD) in the district, lauded the authorities on the move, but noted that other facilities should be in place.
“The planners and engineers have only put emphasis on ramps but accessibility is not only on ramps. There are many things such as toilets, wide doors, windows that can be accessible to the PwDs,” Ms Nasanga said.

A 2007 building and construction report by the Ministry of Works revealed that 95 per cent of buildings in Kampala, Mpigi and Wakiso districts are inaccessible to PwDs.

While launching accessible facilities at Kyambogo Primary School in 2016, Mr Apollo Mukasa, the UNAPD’s coordinator, said they wanted government and other partners adopt and incorporate the design in architectural plans.
“In some schools, children have to leave class and go back to their homes so that they ease themselves and then return which is tiresome and causes others to stop schooling,” Mr Mukasa said.

Mr Arthur Blick, the chairperson of UNAPD, said said PwDs fail to go for treatment because of lack of accessibility.
“I was born normal, but I broke my legs when I had gone for football, so accessibility will benefit all of us because you may be involved in an accident and join the PwDs,” Mr Blick said.

Ms Annet Nakanwagi, a PwD councillor, urged her colleagues in other districts to pass similar by-laws.
Ms Nakanwagi said the ordinance also benefits the elderly, pregnant women, patients and children who cannot climb stairs.

What law says
According to the Persons with Disability Act 2006, it is the responsibility of all organs in the public and private sectors to provide suitable entrances and exit for PwDs and universal standards or designs for public toilets. Section 20 of the Act puts a responsibility on every person who constructs a building for public use to ensure that PWDs have access.