Churches forget people with disabilities says professor

A leading Kenyan professor today criticised Africa's churches for failing to provide for and accommodate the needs of people with disabilities. 

Leaning on a long stick, Prof Paul Kamau Mbugua, a lecturer at Kenyata University, told the ABLI conference, 'You don't remember disabled people when you are providing services in churches or schools.

'Disability is an issue for the minority, but it affects everybody,' he said. 

He added that every church should provide toilets for the disabled, think about alternatives to stairs, such as ramps, and have interpretors for the deaf during services. 

'We need to change our ways so that we can reach out to disabled people,' he said. And he added that the gifts of disabled people were being ignored in churches. They needed to be 'incorporated' into teams of preachers and evangelists, he said. 

His call for change came at the end of the three-day conference which has drawn 450 people from more than 20 African nations.