VIP. That’s what Senator Crystal Asige calls herself, and would prefer if you did too. VIP—Visually Impaired Person. This is the prism through which Asige’s strength as a politician is coloured—that she is an original, capable of saying what nobody else would.
On February 20, 2023, Senator Asige tabled the Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2023, a piece of legislation rooted in a human-rights approach and a collective societal duty to protect and promote the dignity of persons with disabilities. The Bill modernised and expanded the 2003 Persons with Disabilities Act, which had fallen behind the 2010 Constitution and global best practices. On May 8, 2025, President William Ruto assented to the law.
“This law guarantees the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. It is a historic and transformative moment for our nation,” said Asige. The law handed out tax exemptions for employers who hire PWDs or retrofit their workplaces to accommodate them; an increase in the retirement age for PWDs from 60 to 65 years; parents and caregivers of PWDs to receive exemptions from taxable income and, for the first time, neurodiverse conditions such as autism, Down Syndrome, and dyslexia are formally recognised.
She is a BBC-trained media practitioner and an award-winning singer/songwriter. She was relatively a plebe when she joined politics, but now moves with the aura of a venerated veteran, so much so that she was recently recognised as a Top Performing Senator for two consecutive years with five Bills to her name, including the Kenyan Sign Language Bill 2023, and the Startup Bill 2022.
"This law guarantees the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. It is a historic and transformative moment for our nation."
Named among TIME’s 2024 Time100 Next Emerging Leaders, with praise for reshaping perceptions of disability and leadership, her career has been a steady, brisk climb through advocacy and willpower.
The youngest of four children, Senator Asige is a Harvard Law School Fellow, a Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs Enterprise for Peace Scholar, and a One Young World Ambassador.
-Eddy Ashioya