Following a virtual meeting of the Regional Champions of the Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities (CPwD) network, Hon. Dennitah Ghati HSC MP from the National Assembly of Kenya has been announced as the new CPwD Chairperson.

The CPwD network was established by the CPA to support Parliamentarians with disabilities to be more effective in their roles and to help improve awareness of disability issues amongst all Parliamentarians and parliamentary staff. The CPwD Regional Champions represent each of the CPA’s nine Regions and promote the rights of Commonwealth Parliamentarians with disabilities in their respective Regions and represent disability interests within the CPA.

Hon. Dennitah Ghati HSC MP succeeds the first CPwD Chairperson, Hon. Kevin Murphy (Nova Scotia) who was crucial in the establishment of the new CPwD network in 2019. As CPwD Chairperson, Hon. Dennitah Ghati HSC MP will lead the network’s engagement with the CPA Executive Committee and the CPA Headquarters Secretariat and liaise with Commonwealth Parliaments on behalf of the network.

The CPA Secretary-General, Stephen Twigg, welcomed the announcement of the new CPwD Chairperson and said:

“I look forward to working with the new CPwD Chairperson, Hon. Dennitah Ghati to increase awareness of disability issues in Commonwealth Parliaments and to promote the rights of Parliamentarians and parliamentary staff with disabilities.”

Above: Hon. Dennitah Ghati HSC MP from the National Assembly of Kenya has been announced as the new Chairperson of the Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities (CPwD).

About the new CPwD Chairperson

Hon. Dennitah Ghati HSC MP was nominated as a Member of the National Assembly of Kenya in 2017 to represent the special interests of persons with disabilities and she is the CPA Africa Region’s current representative as a CPwD Regional Champion. Previously working as a journalist in Kenya for The East African Standard Newspaper and in New York, USA for the American Jewish World Service. She subsequently worked for the League of Kenyan Women Voters and as a program manager for UNICEF Somalia.

In the 2013 Kenyan General Election, Dennitah Ghati was elected to the National Assembly as the first female representative for Migori county, representing the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). A year later, on in March 2014, she was involved in a serious car accident in Nairobi that sadly resulted in a spinal injury and use of a wheelchair. As a result, she founded the Dennitah Ghati Disability Foundation, a non-profit foundation that seeks to empower persons with disabilities. In July 2018, she represented the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association at the Global Disability Summit.

The Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities (CPwD) network, within the wider Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, facilitates activities and programmes to champion and increase representation of persons with disabilities in Commonwealth Parliaments and works towards the mainstreaming of disability considerations in all CPA activities and programmes. The network supports elected representatives with disabilities in 180 Parliaments and Legislatures across the Commonwealth and ensures that issues of persons with disabilities are brought to the fore in parliamentary debate and legislation. To find out more about the Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities (CPwD) network, please click here.

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