Help Age International, a global non-profit organisation, that works o to improve lives older people around the World has launched research in four Kenyan counties aimed at establishing challenges facing elderly persons and recommending solutions.
This follows an outcry across the Country to the effect that elderly persons have been neglected, with many facing violence from, among others, their close relatives, while others were suffering indignity due to lack of finances.
The international nongovernmental organization held a sensitization workshop with relevant stakeholder organizations at the Catholic Institute in Malindi town, where it was agreed that the research would enable state and non-state actors to find a lasting solution to the woes bedeviling the elderly.
Ms. Lydia Makena Micheni from HelpAge International, Kenya Chapter, said the research would focus on establishing barriers and facilitators to access to social protection, income and health for older persons.
She said the research would be conducted in Siaya, Kilifi, Kisii and Embu counties between September 2024 and December 2024.
She said similar research focusing on social protection, health and wellbeing of older persons was conducted in Nairobi where it was established that the greatest challenge facing elder persons was lack of income, security and health.
“It is from that research that gave us the impetus to conduct similar research in the rural areas. We want to understand how older persons not getting social protection funds are coping with life and the barriers to social protection among older persons,” she said.
Ms. Micheni said the menace of killing older persons on suspicion that they are practicing witchcraft was being fueled by lack of awareness about aging and that the research would come up with solutions to issues of violence and abuse towards older persons.
Mr. Joseph Karisa Mwarandu, the Secretary General of the Malindi District Cultural Association (MADCA), said older persons in Kilifi County had continued to suffer indignity and violence because leaders had given the matter a deaf ear.
“The problem has been exacerbated by the lack of concern from leaders about the plight of older persons, and therefore we urge the government and political and community leaders to come together and tackle this menace,” he said.
He welcomed the research, saying for there to be a solution to the plight of older persons, thorough research should be conducted.
Mr. Mwarandu, whose organization is hosting a number of older persons who fled hostilities in their homes due to witchcraft claims, said political and religious leaders should come out and fight for the plight of the elderly.
“In Kilifi County, together with the fact that older persons do not get good services, they are also being killed on allegations of witchcraft. This is a problem that has brought them great indignity as human beings.
Ms. Helder Lameck from the Malindi Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Network called for the establishment of special desks for elderly persons and at hospitals and police stations so that older person’s issues can be adequately addressed.
By Emmanuel Masha
