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{
    "id": 837269,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/837269/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I beg to move that the Care and Protection of Older Members of Society Bill (Senate Bills No.17 of 2018) be now a read Second Time. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I urge my colleague Senators to kindly indulge me in the next 10 or 15 minutes as I present to them why it is important to consider, protect and take care of the older members of our society. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is a fact of nature that we can avoid almost everything else in life, apart from death and taxes. However, one of the things that you can never run away from is getting old; and that is the reality of life. Therefore, it should bother us – as young as some of us may be – that we shall one day be old, and we will need a society to take care of us and consider us worthy of respect and dignity. Mr. Speaker, Sir, other parts of the world have come up with systems that provide the framework needed to take care of older members of the society. This is so as to ensure that in public spaces, they are accorded the kind of dignity they deserve. Even in places that are ordinarily not known to be of order, for example, in bars and sports stadiums, countries that are more organized have spaces where older members can sit, relax and enjoy their beer or anything else; and this is properly provided for by law. Thanks to our culture, our society has not thought through whether it is important for us to have a legal framework that will ensure that the rights of older members of society – as provided for in Article 57 of our Constitution – are properly guaranteed to them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, one of the ways of taking care of the older people is by putting them in homes for the elderly. What framework exists in our country to ensure that such homes are properly governed? What framework exists in our country to ensure that we do not have people taking advantage of the old by setting up homes, just because it is a thriving business? We may not accept it now and it may look like a far-fetched idea. I, for example, cannot imagine that 50 or 60 years down the line, when I am no longer strong and able, my children will take me to a home for the elderly to be taken care of. It looks like a far-fetched idea. However, the truth of the matter is that as societies continue to evolve, that kind of African communal culture that we are so used to – where you know that you have your home somewhere out in the village where you will go and relax in your old age – is unfortunately waning off. It is, therefore, important for us to begin having this discussion with a view to providing a legal framework for those who will establish such homes. This framework will also guide how old people will be treated in social places, for example, in public fora and social amenities; and also outline what is guaranteed to them as older members of society. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}