‘No Child Left Invisible’: Action Foundation Launches Landmark Strategy to Empower Children with Disabilities.

Action Foundation Launches Landmark Strategy to Empower Children with Disabilities.

By Peace Muthoka.

Nairobi, October 9, 2025 — For decades, children with disabilities in Kenya have faced the highest barriers to care and education. Many have struggled to access health services, attend school, or enjoy the same play and learning opportunities as other children. But that tide is now turning.

On Thursday, The Action Foundation (TAF), in partnership with the national and county governments, launched the Disability-Inclusive Early Childhood Development (DIECD) Project at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Upper Hill, Nairobi — marking a historic step in transforming how Kenya supports young children with disabilities.

The six-year initiative, running from 2025 to 2030, aims to ensure that more than 1.3 million children aged 0 to 8 years, together with their caregivers, can access the health, nutrition, education, and protection services they deserve.

TAF is implementing the project in seven counties — Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Murang’a, Siaya, Kilifi, and Samburu where it seeks to strengthen rehabilitation and health services, promote play-based learning, train teachers for inclusive classrooms, empower caregivers (most of them women), and support county governments to plan and budget for disability-inclusive services.

“We are not just launching a program,” said The Action Foundation’s Executive Director Maria Omare. “We are launching hope, equity, and dignity for over a million children who have long been left unseen.”

By 2030, the project aims for half of all children with disabilities to be enrolled in therapy programs and four out of five to attend child wellness clinics. It also envisions more caregivers gaining economic independence and the creation of a live national database to track the needs and progress of children with disabilities.

Government commits to lasting inclusion

Representing the Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Martha Mmasi, who heads the Ministry’s Disability Mainstreaming Unit, said the government is fully committed to ensuring that no child is left behind.

“The Ministry is very committed. After the enactment of the Persons with Disability Act 2025, mainstreaming is now mandatory to all MDAs,” she said. “We are developing guidelines to ensure we are all-inclusive and comprehensive in our package.”

Mmasi said the Ministry is reviewing its social health programs to guarantee that children with disabilities and their caregivers can access healthcare without financial or physical barriers.

“Leaving no one behind is not just a slogan,” she emphasized. “It is a requirement in achieving universal health coverage because persons with disabilities are part of our population.”

She also pointed out that one of the biggest challenges facing policymakers is the lack of accurate and up-to-date disability data, especially on children under five years old who were left out of the 2019 census.

“We do not have a one-stop shop for disability data,” she admitted. “The last census did not factor in under-fives who are now adolescents so we lack comprehensive data. We are working to consolidate information from various entities and create a single, inclusive national database.”

According to Mmasi, the Ministry has already developed draft guidelines with support from AMREF to promote disability-inclusive health services.

“We are the first Ministry to develop disability-inclusive health guidelines,” she said. “The public will soon be invited to participate in their rollout.”

Action Foundation’s Executive Director Maria Omare speaking during the launch.

A strategy built through collaboration

Stephen Ikonya, the Director of Programs at The Action Foundation, said the new strategy was the result of collaboration between the Ministries of Health, Education, Labour, and Social Protection, alongside the State Departments of Gender and Children’s Services.

“According to WHO, 15 percent of the population are persons with disabilities,” he said. “That means, out of 12.2 million children between 0 and 8 years in Kenya, more than 1.3 million are children with disabilities.”

Ikonya noted that the strategy seeks to ensure these children can access inclusive health, education, and social protection services, starting with the seven pilot counties before scaling up nationwide.

“We realized that children with disabilities face multiple barriers they lack access to inclusive health services, inclusive education, and social protection programs,” he said. “This strategy brings all policies together to see what truly works for them.”

He said the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2025 provides the legal foundation for inclusion, offering free services, tax exemptions, and access to assistive technology.

“If we implement this Act fully, it means every child with a disability can access free medical care, inclusive education, and assistive devices,” he explained. “We must bring together SHIF, the Ministry of Health, and Organizations of Persons with Disabilities to design a clear roadmap for this.”

Ikonya also called on counties to allocate more funds to rehabilitation centers and caregiver support.

“Some counties have only one rehabilitation center, meaning a parent might travel over 100 kilometers to seek help,” he said. “This is exclusion by distance. Counties must budget for inclusion and support caregivers with stipends, just like Inua Jamii supports the elderly.”

He added that caregivers carry a heavy but often invisible load.

“A mother caring for a child with disabilities has to buy medicine, pay for transport, and feed the child. We must think about how to reduce this burden. Why can’t caregivers also receive stipends every month?” he asked.

‘From conversation to action’

“This is where systems change begins to take shape where policies become programs, and programs become opportunities for children who have long been left behind,” she said.

Omare urged stakeholders to measure success not in reports or meetings but in tangible change.

“We must ask ourselves what will success look like at the end of our first year? How do we make inclusion part of everyday systems, not just a project outcome?” she challenged.

She stressed that investing in children with disabilities is not charity but a smart national investment.

“Excluding children with disabilities is not only a social injustice,” she said firmly. “It is an economic and moral failure that costs nations potential and progress. Every dollar and policy invested in inclusion yields lifelong returns.”

Omare closed with a message that drew a standing ovation:

“We are starting with seven counties, but we have 47 we still have a long way to go. Every action we take brings us closer to a Kenya where no child is invisible, no caregiver unsupported, and every life truly counts.”

As the event ended, caregivers hugged, officials pledged support, and the air filled with renewed hope. One mother leaving the hall whispered with emotion,