17 December 2025
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Validity Foundation, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights welcome the judgment of the High Court of Kenya at Nairobi (the Court) in the recent case of Wilson Nderitu Macharia v I&M Bank Limited in which the High Court affirmed that persons with disabilities have the right to obtain the services of private banks on an equal basis with all others, without being subjected to any additional restrictions and while being provided with relevant reasonable accommodations.
Wilson Macharia, an ICJ Legal Adviser, who is visually impaired, had sought to open a bank account with I&M Bank Limited. He was denied the right to sign a contract on his own behalf and was asked either to sign over a power of attorney to another person or sign a “deed of indemnity”, exempting the bank from a broad range of legal liability as a condition of the contract. The bank required the signing of either document explicitly on the basis of Mr Macharia’s disability. Indeed, neither the signing over of power of attorney nor the signing of a deed of indemnity is a typical requirement for opening an account with the bank.
“Mr Macharia’s situation is unfortunately not unique. Persons with visual disabilities in Kenya are all too often questioned and subjected to requirements that other persons are not when entering into contracts,” said ICJ Commissioner, Lawrence Mute.
In his personal capacity, Mr Macharia challenged the special requirements placed on him by I&M Bank Limited before the Court. Lawrence Mute, an ICJ’s Commissioner, together with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, and Championing for Inclusive Communities in Kenya, intervened in the case as amicus curiae, while the Validity Foundation supported the case.
The Court’s judgment, handed down on 14 October 2025, draws extensively on both Kenya’s constitutional provisions relating to persons with disabilities, as well as international human rights law and standards in this respect – in particular the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as well as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa (African Disability Protocol).
“The judgment is a resounding affirmation that persons with disabilities enjoy full legal capacity, including the right to manage and control their own financial affairs. The Court has affirmed that disability can never be a lawful basis for limiting an individual’s autonomy, freedom to enter contracts or financial decision-making,” said Jennifer Wairimu, Legal Advocacy Officer at the Validity Foundation.
“Despite the recent enactment of the Persons with Disability Act, Kenyan authorities and private companies all too often are unaware of their domestic and international obligations relating to disability rights. This judgment shows the importance of persons with disabilities asserting their rights in front of Kenyan Courts”, Lawrence Mute added.
In summary, the Court found that the special requirements that I&M Bank Limited placed on Mr Macharia:
- Were discriminatory on the basis of his disability, including by directly constituting discriminatory conduct, and as a result of the failure to provide him with reasonable accommodations;
- Fell short of the obligation to ensure that services available to the public were available to persons with disabilities;
- Harmed his dignity as a person with a disability;
- Undermined his right to legal capacity, in particular to manage his own financial affairs; and
- Violated his right to accessibility by imposing barriers that prevented him from independently accessing banking services on an equal basis with others.
In light of its findings, the Court issued an order against I&M Bank Limited, awarding Mr Macharia compensation for these human rights violations and instructing the bank to bear the costs of the suit.
The ICJ, the Validity Foundation and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights call on I&M Bank Limited to abide by the ruling and to expeditiously engage with organizations of persons with disabilities on the revision of its internal policies to ensure they comply with domestic and international human rights law obligations relating to the human rights of persons with disabilities.
Background
Both the CRPD (Article 12) and the African Disability Protocol (Article 7) recognize that persons with disabilities enjoy full legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life, including in financial and economic matters. These treaties guarantee to persons with disabilities the right to control their own financial affairs, to access bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit without discrimination, and to protection against being arbitrarily deprived of their property.
The CRPD Committee, in its General Comment No. 1, has underscored that States must take legislative, administrative, judicial and practical measures to ensure these rights. It has emphasized that persons with disabilities have historically been denied access to finance and property because of discriminatory, medical-model assumptions about their capacity. The Committee has made clear that this approach must be replaced by systems of support to exercise legal capacity, noting that “in the same way as gender may not be used as the basis for discrimination in the areas of finance and property, neither may disability.”
Resources
- ICJ, ‘An Opportune Moment: Realizing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa’, May 2025. [The Summary of the report is available here.]
- ICJ, ‘Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities in Kenya: Progress and Challenges,’ July 2025. [The Summary of the report is available here]
Contacts
Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, ICJ Africa Director, e: Kaajal.Keogh@icj.org
Jennifer Wairimu, Validity Foundation Legal Advocacy Officer, e: jennifer@validity.ngo
