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"content": "have produced and what you can do. You do not just lay about drinking, marking time and doing all sort of things until you reach 65, then you go to a home for the old people to eat, sleep and live there. What society shall we be building? When you go to Japan, you will find 100 year old people walking to work. In China, a country with the largest percentage of old people on earth, people work up to the age of 98 or 100 years. At the age of 100 years, somebody still lives on his own, goes to work, comes home, cooks his food and eats it. If we say, at 65 years of age, people have to go to homes to be fed like in hotels, we will be destroying our country and the prospects for the future. We want to be a newly industrialized country by 2030, a vision that was properly designed by the former President, Mzee Mwai Kibaki, which the Jubilee Government has abandoned. I have not heard the Jubilee Government – and my colleagues across the Floor can tell us, on any single occasion, mention Vision 2030 which was a fantastic vision for this country. They have isolated a few programmes from Vision 2030 for purposes of cutting deals and taking bribes, for example, the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) which they are rushing to. They have forgotten that it was meant to serve a purpose. It was meant to be part of a larger complex economy that is to grow and make Kenyans’ life expectancy rise. In some counties in this country, the life expectancy is as low as 43 years from the data that we have. Therefore, from Sen. (Prof.) Lesan’s prescription of senior citizens, some counties will even be left out because where life expectancy is 43 years, you can imagine that even if you build those homes and say they will come in at 65 years, there will be hardly anybody to live there. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we want to build a country of people who work. There used to be a Mzee called Mr. Njuguna who used to sell meat to big meat eaters near Safaricom House. He died recently at over 70 years of age. But he was there, weighing, slicing and roasting meat. He was popular to many people. I notice that even Safaricom had to improve his structure. A man like that is one to emulate. There are so many hard working people, but when we create a situation where we will start rewarding idlers and lazy people, then we will not be doing the right thing. I want the counties and the national Government to partner in strengthening safety net programmes with a very clear criterion. If my grandfather requires help and Sen. Lesuuda has the capacity to help him. Let us evaluate clearly and see to the welfare of the poorest of the poor, but you do not help them by stripping them of their association and dignity by putting them in what looks like – those homes are actually prisons. Those who drink cannot find alcohol there, those who smoke may not do so there and those who want to walk around markets and sit with people cannot do so. When you go to a boarding school, you do not have the right to wake up every morning and go to the market to count whatever you want to, you have to abide by the rules. People must be free, live, associate with and speak to those they want to speak to. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to leave the opportunity for somebody else to contribute. I urge Sen. (Prof.) Lesan, if he is truly African, to reflect and see how African societies, including his County of Bomet, treat their elderly citizens; you do not tie their hands and take them to institutions, you make it easy for them to live and be appreciated. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}