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{
    "id": 360103,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/360103/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 199,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "May 15, 2013 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 20 Hon. Kimaru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to support the Motion. Indeed, the elderly have been marginalized in the sense that, at that age of above 60, most of the elderly people are not productive or engaged in productive employment or in any kind of employment at all. Majority of those find themselves in destitute situations where they cannot provide for themselves. They lack food and even medical care. From my personal experience, every time I am at the constituency, I have to foot a number of medical bills for the elderly. That, indeed, is not the work of an MP. I think that should be the work of the Government to take care of its disadvantaged members; the senior members of this society appropriately. I think it is not enough to just provide nursing units. My understanding of a nursing unit is where somebody will be admitted and be taken care of. Many of those elderly people require medical care throughout. Even the in-patient services that are there, many of them will not afford them. I know I am not alone in saying that from time to time, we have to foot those bills. Maybe, that is the reason why we ask for bigger perks. But even then, it is not our duty to provide those services. So, the Motion is timely and I think the net should be expanded like in many other countries that take care of their elderly. They should be provided with free health care at Government institutions. It is possible to do so because we know that the percentage of the population that constitutes the elderly group is not that big and, indeed, the Government can cater for them. As I said, it may not just be the medical care. We also need to have providence for them to keep them going. From a personal experience, I also pay rent where I live because it is in a slum area. Most of those people who come from that slum area are in rented premises and eventually as it is bound to happen with each one of us, they get elderly. They do not have homes of their own and have to rent those ones. Even at a mere Kshs200 or Kshs300, they are still not able to pay. So, we still have to provide for them. When we talk about an elderly fund where the elderly people can be funded by the Government, I think it is also important that this stops being a pilot project. It has been a pilot project forever. It was started at the beginning of the last Government and up to the end of that Government it has still continued to be a pilot project. Even today, it is still a project. Within my constituency, we still have people who receive those stipends every now and then. But then the majority does not save that money. Is that not being selective? Why should a few people in the society who are aged get the benefit of those funds while a majority does not get it? People are asking all the time: “Where are the funds for the elderly?” When you tell them that it is still a pilot project, they cannot understand because if one person has a neighbor who is benefiting, you cannot tell him it is a pilot project while another person is enjoying the same. In Nanyuki where I come from, the people who were living in slums like Kanyoni and Kwa Mbuzi were kicked out. Those people still live in destitution. We have seen schemes started in the very same areas but they do not benefit the old and needy. But you have new people coming in and benefiting. Those who are supposed to benefit are not given the money. I think this is an opportune time to undertake to have people from Kanyoni and Kwa Mbuzi areas resettled by the Government. That is because the land was set aside to resettle them. But, instead of settling the bona fide members of those slums, it benefited other people. So, I stand to support that, indeed, the elderly should get those benefits. Ahsante!"
}