Nominated Senator Getrude Musuruve was announced as the new Co-Chair of the International Parliamentary Network on Education (IPNE) on Monday, August 24.
She will Co-chair IPNE alongside Harriet Baldwin, a Member of Parliament from the United Kingdom. The body has its membership drawn from around the world and mobilizes political support to accelerate quality education for all.
IPNE also works to harmonize and push education policy around the world as a means of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It has been a long journey for Musuruve, who hails from Kakamega County and represents people with disabilities in the Senate.
Only seven years ago, she felt as if the world was crashing around her after being diagnosed with stage one bone cancer, also known as Ewing's Sarcoma. She had been experiencing pain in one of her hip joints before the diagnosis.
At the time, she was a lecturer at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and was pursuing her Doctorate.
Doctors informed her that she would have to travel out of the country for treatment, citing India and South Africa as options.
The prohibitive cost of the treatment, Ksh5 million, fazed her at first but family, friends, her students and employer rallied together to support her.
She underwent a surgery in India that saw her femur (thigh bone) replaced with a customized hemi-pelvic prosthesis.
With the cancerous tissue removed, Musuruve was soon declared cancer-free. She, however, lost the ability to walk without crutches following the operation.
After her recovery, Musuruve sought to embark on helping those who found themselves in similar predicaments and founded a charitable organization, Living Beyond Cancer and Disability (LIBCAD), in 2014.
Three years later, she was nominated by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to the Senate to represent people with disabilities.
Now, she is a key player in shaping education policy around the world. Musuruve told reporters that given her background in education and disability, she was more than capable of taking on the task. She noted that she previously taught at a school for the deaf.
"I know the gaps (in education for the disabled) as I have been one of them theoretically and now practically. I am passionate about issues on disability," she asserted on Tuesday, August 26.
