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{
    "id": 836515,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/836515/?format=api",
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    "content": "Considering that the old people are few; they fall within the minority in the society, they may not be ethnic minority, but they are minority in terms of age; to what extent are decisions made at the national and county levels incorporating the views and position of older members of society? Article 57 captures the older members of society. The Bill is timely. I thank Sen. Cheruiyot for thinking through this at his youthful years. He is one of the few elected Senators who are serving their second term and are still young. One would have expected another member of the society who would have thought about this. It is important that Sen. Cheruiyot as a young person is thinking about his old age. I congratulate him even if he is not here for coming up with this very important Bill. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this Bill brings into fore the challenges, opportunities for us and the obligations of the State in so far as protection of older members of society. Clause 5 reproduces the provisions of the Constitution which basically agrees that there must be full participation in the affairs of society. When public participation is done in the counties to form the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) to what extent are older members of society incorporated? For example, we are going for public participation and consultation on this Bill. Therefore, we should ask ourselves: To what extent do we ensure that the Bill captures the concerns of the older members of society? There are rights for the people to participate in the affairs of the society. This is where we should also fault ourselves, especially the young Senators such as Sen. Sakaja and Sen. Cheruiyot, Sen. Cherargei and the rest of us. We should fault ourselves in situations where we allow our youthful years to be used to attack the older members of society. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Article 57(a) of the Constitution says “full participation in the affairs society”. This means giving jobs to older members of society. We have heard some people complaining why the President appoints so-and-so who has been in office for many years. Why should the President appoint them to hold office when we have young people in this country? We were here with Sen. Musila. The other day, the President appointed him to become a Chairman of the National Museums of Kenya. For all intents and purposes, Sen. Musila has immense knowledge, education and experience. We must also recognise that when we will become old, we will have immense experience and knowledge. Therefore, we will still desire to use it change society. I do not know whether it is empirical or scientific, but I dare say that older people in the society are busy and active, they live longer when they quickly fade from the job they like. That is why after two or three days when our mothers and grandmothers who have been living in the village are brought to stay with their grandchildren in towns, they want to go to take care of their cows and to do the things they like. That prolongs their lives. They keep on contributing positively to the wellbeing of the society. Those of us who have been questioning why certain people are being involved in participation in national development must know that the right is in the Article 57(a) of our Constitution. It is not the body, but the brains that we are looking for. What is important is whether the brain is working and can contribute. The average age of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, it is about 56 to 60 years. The oldest member is Mr. Wilbur Ross, who 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."
}