Don’t write off the aged, give them room to teach and nurture new talent

Kenya has come a long way in providing pensions for workers headed for retirement, but this benefit has been restricted to those in the formal sector, which still employs only a minority of the population.  

By Mike Eldon

In Summary

The challenge is to make the best use of us, and this is often as teachers, mentors, consultants and in other such roles that while still making available our knowledge and skills also allows for the unstifled blossoming of new talent.inShare

Almost every day we’re asked to focus on one cause or another. On October 1, I was at a function to celebrate the UN Day of Non-Violence, and the next day I attended a fund-raising dinner in honour of the International Day of Older Persons.

It was organised by HelpAge Kenya, which I was delighted to see is run by vibrant people.

Dr Tavenga Nhongo, a pioneer of social protection programmes around Africa, told us about the prominent role that Kenya has played in promoting the well-being of the aged, going back to the 1982 conference on the subject.

Hosted in Nairobi, it was the first international meeting on older people in Africa.

Indeed Kenya was instrumental in the establishment of HelpAge International, whose Africa regional office opened in Nairobi in 1988.

As for HelpAge Kenya, in its early years it benefitted from the leadership of people like Margaret Kenyatta and Pamela Mboya, and now again a woman — Terry Obath — chairs the organisation.

Terry Obath informed us that six per cent of Kenya’s population is already over 60 (the threshold mark for becoming “aged”), and this is due to rise to 10 per cent by 2050.

But it’s not too meaningful to lump the over-sixties together, as we’re a very diverse lot, composed of the rural and the urban, the poor and the wealthy, the illiterate and the educated, and so we have varied needs.

Happily, some of us still have a contribution to make to society, but many suffer from great neglect and abuse, from loneliness and poverty.

It is this that led HelpAge Kenya to its vision of ‘working towards a society whose older persons live in dignity, where their rights and entitlements are guaranteed’.

It supports this vision through its mission of ‘championing the rights and needs of older persons through advocacy, economic empowerment and institutional strengthening’.

I particularly like the organisation’s values: Unreserved respect for older persons’ views, a belief that older persons should actively participate in decision-making, the need for independence and self-fulfillment of older persons, and recognising their wisdom and significant contributions.

At the dinner we heard about the challenges faced by the elderly. Many suffer from Aids, while others have lost their children to it and are now responsible for taking care of their grandchildren.

More are abused, including through being accused of witchcraft, often an all too convenient way of fixing land disputes. (It’s one of the reasons HelpAge Kenya has organised Older Citizens’ Monitoring Units, partnering with local security forces.)

In hospital wards we only see a separation between the genders, as a result of which old people have to handle the awkwardness that comes with age in the presence of much younger

And there’s the need to pay greater attention to geriatric medicine, as well as to supporting those who care for the elderly. This includes nurses in hospitals and clinics, who lack training in how to deal sensitively with older people — often far more frail and disoriented than those they normal deal with.

Kenya has come a long way in providing pensions for workers headed for retirement, but this benefit has been restricted to those in the formal sector, which still employs only a minority of the population.

Fortunately, a National Social Protection Policy and a National Policy on Older Persons and Ageing are going through the legislative process, if rather slowly. But there’s no mention of the elderly in Vision 2030, and we are still at the beginnings of mainstreaming the subject.

We’re a long way off from offering our over-60s free public transport and other such financial benefits that are on offer in the developed world, where nuclear families have shrunk to insignificance.

Having said that, thanks to our fast-increasing urbanisation and general Westernisation, support systems that have survived for so long are weakening significantly.

Soon, too many extended family relationships will be reduced to little more than M-Pesa ones.

These days, all over the world and not least here in Kenya, we live in a youth culture that too readily assumes old to be obsolete and worn out, staid and conservative.

Yes, too many of our leaders hang on way past their sell-by date, holding us back from the progress we might see if we allowed more Young Turks into positions of influence.

But not many suggest we should go so far as to eliminate the over-60s from the workforce — even though they sometimes hold jobs that could be taken by the unemployed young.

With increased longevity and improved healthcare and lifestyles, more and more of us third-agers are still feeling energetic and relevant.

Knowledge

The challenge is to make the best use of us, and this is often as teachers, mentors, consultants and in other such roles that while still making available our knowledge and skills also allows for the unstifled blossoming of new talent.

At the dinner we were told that “the only way to avoid growing old is to die young”.

Well, more and more of us are not dying young, and we treat our 60s as earlier generations thought of their 50s.

The secret of a healthy society is to see all the generations making their full possible contribution.

 If you want to support HelpAge Kenya in its quest to build such a society, write to helpage@helpagekenya.org. They need you… whatever your age.