Getting around Kenya's capital Nairobi is a daily struggle for people with disabilities. The public transport system remains largely inaccessible. But one family's personal experience with disability has led to a new business trying to fill the gap.
00:00This is how Kenyans with disabilities have to get on and off buses.
00:06Elvis Otsiula works as a customer care agent in Nairobi's central business district.
00:11Waiting to be lifted up to board the vehicle and then to be lifted down while alighting,
00:21it's very tiresome and also it lowers somebody's esteem.
00:31He has to go through this simulating process every day because the buses are not designed for wheelchair users.
00:37Wilson Kamau was a bus driver. His vehicle was in an accident which left him needing a wheelchair.
00:43He says public transport access for people in wheelchairs is still stuck in the past.
00:48There's nothing that's changed.
00:55Getting on a public bus is very difficult, almost impossible for someone with a severe disability.
01:02Maybe people with some capacity can board it with a bit of help.
01:07But when you have a severe disability like myself, boarding a public transport bus is almost next to impossible.
01:15This impossible situation prompted Wilson's son Daniel Gatora to be extra helpful when working as a taxi driver.
01:23And three years ago he sold his car, took a loan and bought a mobility van to cater for people with disabilities.
01:29The same challenge I saw at home with my dad was the same challenge I faced at work.
01:33Where people with reduced mobility used to request for vehicles and most drivers used to turn them down.
01:39And when then I got the ride request, they were amazed by how willing I was to offer that extra needed support and how patient I was even with them.
01:48And so that then informed what Ace Mobility is right now.
01:53Now he operates a fleet of 20 vans and drivers working across Nairobi.
01:57The United Nations Population Fund says people with disabilities make up 2.2% of Kenya's population, close to 1 million individuals.
02:06Their rights are enshrined in Kenya's 2010 constitution, but there has been little provision.
02:13Bishop Jackson Kosgei is the Vice Chair of Kenya's Disability Parliamentary Association.
02:18The nominated member of parliament representing people with disabilities says that a new law should turn principle into action,
02:25sets out deadlines for transport companies to make provision for people with disabilities.
02:30There are only two things that makes certain gaps be met in society.
02:36Number one is the law, and which we have it now.
02:40Number two is the right people to implement it.
02:45The law itself now will speak to the transport industry, whether it is in private or public.
02:52So what will make them agree is the conditions are tied to licensing for your operations.
03:00Ace Mobility is banking on its personalized service.
03:03Wilson gets free rides in his son's vans.
03:06Everyone else has to pay.
03:08Daniel admits it's about 30% more than the normal ride hailing apps.
03:12The driver becomes your caregiver, and so they are able to work with you to the exact floor or building you are going to.
03:19And so there is that particular extra touch.
03:21And then, so now what happens is there is longer wage time for us.
03:26The new law's deadlines will not force companies to do anything for five years,
03:30leaving his farm one of the few options for people with disabilities in Nairobi.
03:35In the same order, they normally have to do, but there are very few in the same order of new plans.
03:36Your name is that Cantina is now the opposite of the occupancy of having a major job.
03:38In the same order, I can't maintain a small wage time for all kinds of個人ity.
03:40The new law's Fazenda is now the best thing to do with the neuroscience building.
03:42The new law is at the same time.
03:43So what does that mean?
03:44And what happens is...
03:45There is a large wage time for people, uh, there is a large wage time for men.
03:46And yet I am the same wage time for people with the stereos in my life,
03:51So the king can ride is the same.
03:52But probably for another week or three weeks after a few months after a few months after a year as well,
03:53and I look at the same time for people who are at the same time
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