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{
    "id": 1163704,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1163704/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 217,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherargei",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I rise to support the Motion on Recognizing and Appreciating the Elderly by County Governments. As the House that protects devolution, we need to protect our elderly. Any society that does not appreciate the elderly is a society that is doomed for failure. Most of this elderly people gave their youthful years building, sacrificing and working for this nation. They have laid the foundation. It is a high time we must appreciate them as a nation. Whenever I am in Nandi, I meet retired civil servants be it teachers or farmers. Life has given them a beating because they are old and cannot walk. They rely on their children. However, the children sometimes do not have jobs because of the high rate of unemployment. They cannot maintain their parents. One of the challenges that affects the elderly in the society is majorly health issues. Some of them have terminal illnesses and diseases because of old age. Secondly, it is also because of food and shelter. When you visit some of those homes, you will find that these old grandfathers and grandmothers do not have anybody to support them. They need to buy medicine and food to sustain themselves as Kenyans. These are the people who gave their best years to the nation. What we are doing is their right under the Constitution. One of the celebrated features of the Kenyan Constitution of 2010 is recognition of the rights of old people. What Sen. Nyamunga is trying to do is just to call upon county governments. I would have expected that in their wisdom, county governments should have started these programmes. The national Government started this programme, Pesa kwa Wazee since 2006. They however still have gray areas. I remember there is a Statement that we brought here to question why only specific banks were being used? The question was, why would you use a bank to pay Kshs2,000? Another question that we sought tin this House is why that money could not be disbursed to them through their M-Pesa lines? The third question that we asked then was how we can become efficient in terms of ensuring that the right people get those funds? The fourth issue that must be addressed here is the registration process. In Nandi County, we are sometimes told by the chiefs, Deputy County Commissioners (DCC) and many others that the registration process will begin soon. Our elderly are yet to be registered. Our representatives of the national Government do not know where to register and how it is being done. In as much as it has gray areas, that money has assisted some population of the elderly to access some of these basic services such as health, food and shelter even though it may not be enough. County governments should supplement what the national Government is doing. It is their role. I was somewhere in Nandi County called Chebyoyet, Kamongei and Sosiat - a border that we share with Kakamega County. Whenever a Mzee stands in a public"
}