The Silent Exclusion: Why 54% of Women with Disabilities are Left Behind

By Alfred Asande

We often hear that numbers don’t lie, but in Kenya’s fiscal landscape, numbers often hide the truth. They hide the woman in a rural village in Kisii who cannot access a "Chama" because the meeting is held in a place her wheelchair can’t reach. They hide the survivor of violence who remains silent because she has no financial "exit plan."

When we look at the data—or the lack thereof—we see a "Silent Exclusion." This isn't just a technical glitch in our banking system; it is a structural barrier that keeps the most vulnerable Kenyans in a cycle of poverty and dependence.
The 54% Reality: A Statistics or a Crisis?

The number that should stop every policymaker in their tracks comes from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2022. It reveals that the prevalence of intimate partner violence in Nyamira is 54%, while in Kisii it is 56%.

Think about that for a moment. In these counties, more than half of all women have experienced violence from the person who is supposed to be their partner. This isn't just a social issue; it’s an economic one. When a woman is economically marginalized, she is "trapped by stigma, shattered self-esteem, and a lack of accessible financial pathways". She stays in an abusive situation because she has no other choice.

For women with disabilities, this vulnerability is doubled. They face "intersectional barriers such as low literacy, physical inaccessibility, and profound social isolation". They are the most likely to be left behind, yet the least likely to be counted in our national economic reports.

The Data Vacuum: Counting what Matters

One of the biggest issues we face is a "data vacuum." While we have big national numbers, we lack the "field evidence" to show how these women are surviving.

• The "Missing" Women: Most survivors of violence are missing from organized women’s groups and Chamas, locking them out of the only trusted financial model that actually works for women.
• Invisible Credit: Even when these women do save money through "table banking," their records are handwritten in notebooks that formal banks don't recognize. Their economic life is invisible to the formal system.

The Human Story: Breaking the Cycle

I remember meeting a woman—let’s call her a "Silent Warrior"—who lived in the outskirts of Kisii. She was a survivor of extreme domestic violence and lived with a physical disability. To the formal world, she didn't exist. She had no bank account, no collateral, and no digital footprint.

But she had a "Chama." Every week, she and ten other women would meet. They would contribute what they could—sometimes just a few shillings. This was her only safety net. However, when she needed a larger loan to start a small poultry business to gain her independence, the group didn't have enough capital, and the local bank told her she was "unbankable."

Her story is the story of thousands. This is where the Verified Inclusive Pathways (VIP) Project comes in.

Innovation as an Act of Inclusion

At Ustawi Kenya, in partnership with the Kisii Innovation Lab, we are turning this "lack of data" into a tool for empowerment. We aren't just "giving loans"; we are building a digital bridge.

• Digitizing the "Chama": We are working with 50 women’s groups and Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) to digitize their records. By turning a handwritten notebook into a verified digital history, we give these women a "formal financial identity" for the first time.
• Safety First: Our digital tool is designed with "privacy-by-design" to protect survivors from their abusers. We are also training "Digital Champions" who aren't just tech-savvy youth, but are trained in Psychosocial First Aid to identify signs of distress and offer safe referrals.
• The "People's Ledger": By collecting our own data from the ground up, we are creating a "verified inclusive pathway" that proves these women are the most resilient and reliable borrowers in the country.

A Human-Centered Future

We need to stop seeing "54%" as a statistic and start seeing it as a call to action. True Ustawi (prosperity) isn't possible if half of our population is living in the shadow of violence and exclusion.

By joining Ustawi’s community roots with Kisii Innovation Lab’s social innovation methodology, we are proving that technology doesn't have to be a tool of exclusion. It can be the key that unlocks the door for the "Silent Warrior" and thousands like her.

We invite you to support this architecture of inclusion. Funding for the VIP project directly supports:

1. Digital Onboarding: Helping 50 groups migrate their histories to a secure, verified platform.
2. Trauma-Informed Training: Equipping community leaders to provide the social and economic support survivors need to rebuild their lives.
3. Linking to Capital: Facilitating at least KES 5 million in formal loans for these grassroots enterprises.

Let’s turn the data vacuum into a data-driven revolution. Let’s make sure that no woman—regardless of her ability or her past—is left behind.

About the Author: Alfred Asande is the CEO of Kisii Innovation Lab. He believes that "Social Innovation" is just a fancy word for finding human ways to fix broken systems. You can follow our work at klab.or.ke and ustawikenya.org.

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