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{
    "id": 836542,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/836542/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 86,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "It is a pity that we must have this Bill to take care of the older members of our society. I recollect when I was in Form One, there was a teacher who went to the United Kingdom (UK) for three months on a British Council Scholarship. When he came back, he told us about his visits to homes for old people in UK. He told us a story about a former teacher of the school who was over 70 years and was a bit sick. He had a family of two sons and one daughter. One day, they saw it fit to remove him from a very big home that they had in Stafford and took him to old people’s home because he was too old to stay with them. The picture that came to our minds at that time was that white people did no not know how to take care of their old people. If your father or mother gets old, however much they may have helped you to be where you are, they should not be a burden to you in the house to a point where you put them in the old people’s home. Little did I know that a number of years down the line, a young Senator will now see the need for us to have old people’s homes in Kenya. The time has come for us to have these old people’s homes because our social system has broken down. In the past, we were all based in the rural areas. We knew each other and the houses were the same. We were living more or less the same way. However, things have now changed. For example, if I have two bed-roomed house and my father comes here and he is sick, what do I do with him? If I was born in Ofafa Jericho or in any other estate and my father who brought me up now retires, when he retires, he goes home briefly and come back here because he cannot cope there. He then falls sick and wants to stay with me in Nairobi, where do I take him? How does he live with me? It has, therefore, become necessary that we have these old people’s homes. To me, this Bill is comprehensive in that regard. I want to make one point which I think should be taken care of even as we copy the homes for old people in the so-called developed countries. Very much as we should copy those systems of licensing, inspection and ensuring that those homes are able to take care of the old people by ensuring that they have the personnel to look after the old people, I feel that what is lacking in this Bill is an element of the preservation of our own social culture. That preservation should also be inbuilt here. If a person becomes very old, the first decision should not be for the family to take him to the old people’s homes. It should be convenient for the old person and the family that he goes to the old people’s homes. They should visit him from time to time. That may be convenient. However, there are people in this country who still believe that they can look after the old people in their homes as it used to happen in this country. This Bill should recognise those people. It may very well be that those people may not have the capacity to look after the old people in their own homes as they are meant to be looked after by providing them with food, shelter and medical assistance care. They very well might not be able to do so because of poverty and so on. In addition to community and home based programmes, we should also have family based programmes. The definition of a community based programme according to Clause 11 is with respect of the older members of the society who are isolated and the family members or care givers who cannot take care of them. This means that when an old person falls under 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."
}