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{
    "id": 584950,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/584950/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 302,
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    "content": "trying to seek ways and means to bring closer those people who are seen to be old, senile and those people sometimes regarded as not useful to the society yet they have been useful in the past. They have been good and for that matter they should be recognized. In many other countries in the West, they are called senior citizens. Even here, we need to refer to them as senior citizens. There are some things that we need to do for these people so that they can live longer in the sense that they are human beings and it is against God or doctrines of the Bible to imagine somebody is not alive after clocking 90 years. Let them live up to the time when they leave us and we give them a decent burial. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have been to quite a number of countries and what I see there is very encouraging. In America, a state like Alabama, old men and ladies have their own seats and senior citizens are respected. The bus cannot leave before the old have already sat down and they are the first people to alight at the point of destination. The same applies to France, Germany and Britain. In London, the double- decker buses have special seats for the old. They give total respect to these people such that you also feel like you admire such a society. In those societies we say they are welfare states, but there is nothing wrong in Kenya being one of them. There is nothing wrong in extending the same to these old people because they once struggled to maintain and bring the country to where it is. Supposing these people were not there, what kind of state do you think we would be inheriting? The First President, Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, Bildad Kaggia, Ochieng Oneko and Sen. G.G Kariuki are people who fought and struggled for this country. We need to respect them. If it were not for their struggle, Kenya would not be where it is. I know they struggled, did a lot of good work for this country and for that reason, therefore, the government should see it fit to pay some token for them to live longer. There are some who did not acquire a lot of wealth. These are the ones we are saying that the government should be able to support and bring them up in the old homes. We have miji ya huruma all over the country. These old homes should be run by the government and be inspected often even if they are run by the county government so that the government sees to it that the old people living there live decently. I am sure the old people will live longer. It is because of the old people that we have the adage; “old is gold” and we, therefore, recognize that living long is important. When you are employed, permanent and pensionable, we say you have been employed on permanent and pensionable terms. When we are pensionable, we would expect that the moment your pension is limited on monthly basis just like the way it is written in the employment letter. These days we know that some people retire, and after retirement, they never get their dues. I have a case of teachers who retired in 1997 and since then, they have not been receiving their dues. Some of them have died, some live in problems, they cannot get time to come to Nairobi and claim their dues and the government has failed to pay their pension. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in this regard, it is bad to imagine that the government of the same country which has been put up by the people who are now old and tired are the same people not being offered decency in their lives. Once this Bill is passed, it is going to include all those people who worked hard. When we leave 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."
}