Global Disability Network (CPwD) Elects Kenyan MP Hon Dennitah Ghati As Chairperson

NAIROBI, Kenya, September 22, 2021: ODM Nominated Member of Parliament in the current National Assembly, Hon. Dennitah Ghati has been elected as the  New Chairperson for Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities network (CPwD).

Her election was made during a virtual meeting of the Regional Champions of the Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities (CPwD) network.

Hon. Ghati as the new CPwD Chairperson, will lead the network’s engagement with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Executive Committee and the CPA Headquarters Secretariat and liaise with Commonwealth Parliaments on behalf of the network.

Hon Ghati who has been widely acknowledged as a strong advocate for people with disabilities both at the National Assembly as well as within the CPA fraternity becomes the second chairperson since the establishment of the network. She succeds the first CPwD Chairperson, Hon. Kevin Murphy (Nova Scotia) who was crucial in the establishment of the new CPwD network in 2019

While congratulating her on her election, CPA Secretary-General, Stephen Twigg, welcomed the announcement of the new CPwD Chairperson and undertook to work closely with her to increase awareness on disability issues across Commonwealth legislatures.

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

On her part, Hon Ghati through her twitter handle acknowledged the role and “look forward to an exciting journey in promoting disability rights”

As CPwD Chairperson, Dennitah Ghati 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 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 network’s role is to promote the rights of Commonwealth Parliamentarians with disabilities in their respective Regions and represent disability interests within the CPA.

Dennitah Ghati was born in 1980 in a rural village in Migori and attended Kenya Institute of Mass Communication in Nairobi and Kenyatta University before working as a journalist at The East African Standard Newspaper.

She obtained a scholarship to Columbia University in the USA where she obtained a Master’s degree and worked in New York for the American Jewish World Service. She subsequently worked for the League of Kenyan Women Voters and as a program manager for UNICEF Somalia.

Ghati was elected to the National Assembly at the 2013 general election on an ODM ticket as the woman representative for Migori county

In 2014 she was involved in a road traffic accident in which she suffered a broken spine, leaving her permanently disabled.

In 2017 Dennitah Ghati was nominated by the Orange Democratic Movement(ODM) Party as one of 12 members nominated by the political parties introduced by the Constitution of Kenya in 2010 to represent the special interests of youth, persons with disabilities and she is the representative. In July 2018, she represented the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association at the Global Disability Summit.