Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1007428,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1007428/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 402,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "but the improvement in our economic status means that the life expectancy is increasing and so we will have more old people. Secondly, the structure of our families and our lifestyles has also changed. In the old days, most of the people looked at the children as their support system in their old age. That is no longer true. Children move and live far off in other countries. We, therefore, will have a situation where we are going to have a large number of people who are elderly who need care. Therefore, a structure has to be put in place. For these people, it is like the situation is reversing. Their rights are becoming increasingly important, that is the right to legal capacity as is taken care of in this Bill, the right to equality and non-discrimination. If you look at the area of jobs, some of us who are getting old, there is a feeling that old persons should not have jobs. In some places, it is so bad that old people are thought to be wizards and witches and are killed against the rights that they are entitled to. So, they are entitled to protection, even to getting used to new technologies. As people get old and technologies increases, people find themselves unable to cope in the environment. Still they are entitled to access public facilities and even access information when you talk of ICT. Some of us are lucky we have got a little of it but even then, it will change. So, we are going to have a population that needs a lot of support. As a society, we are obliged to take care of our old people just as we are obliged to take care of our children. In fact, when I was in the Ministry I had thought there should be a law that states that if young people do not take care of their old parents, they should be punished as equally as parents who are not taking care of their children. So, that is the context in which we should see this Bill. What are we going to do? We can take care of them at home. However, people still go out to work, they need support at home and so they will need systems. I see this Bill is looking at it through home based care programmes. There are times that even provisions for these people need to be delivered and that will need to be looked at. When they are also being taken care of at home, the chance of abuse particularly when we employ people to take care of them is high. They are subject to abuse by the very same people who are likely to take care of them. Their health needs… I will tell you as a doctor that as you get older, your response to disease is different. The COVID-19 is one example but also in all other illnesses, you may not respond the same way. So, that level of care will also be looked at. I like this Bill, because it has put structures for looking at the elderly persons in the homes. However, whether we like it or not, what is going to come is that there are going to be homes not in the communities but we are going to have old people’s homes as a big challenge. This is because the financial outlay that is required is big. The personnel required is big and so we need to relook at that. The cash transfer programme is already having problems as some cannot access the cash. The people who are taking the funds are not taking care of them. So, this Bill provides for an authority that will say when we put up these homes how we will inspect them and how we will ensure that they are ethical issues there and this authority will look at that. So, we could say a lot more but in general I support this Bill. We have to put a structure and a legal …"
}