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{
    "id": 971185,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/971185/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 275,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "am old. Then suddenly it made me realise that those of us who are sitting here and we are talking about old people like we think is yonder… There is no yonder. You are the old one in this House. So stop thinking about old people like you think they are in another world. You are the ones who are old. I came to this Parliament when people used to call me young. I do not realise when I reach this point people are calling me old even though I am not old but middle aged. However, from their perspective I am that old person. Because of that, I want us to pass this law knowing that I am passing this law for myself and not for an old woman at home. It is for me. Now when I am walking I cannot be as vibrant as I was before. There are some bones that are cracking in my knees. I fall more easily. It is natural and because of those things, we must provide a safety net for these older persons of the society. I want to posthumously congratulate my sister, Hon. (Dr.) Joyce Laboso. We worked with her on the Social Assistance Act that everybody is talking about here. One of the things that she tried to look at was just that; taking care of the vulnerable people of the society. Because I know I will not have much time, I just want to say that we need to know that unfortunately because of the circumstances we have in society, even the older persons that should be retired and that we should be taking care of are the ones that are now taking care of fragile households. We have concepts that we never had before. The social safety networks that used to exist are dead and now fathers and mothers have died. You find that it is the older persons who are taking care of their grandchildren. There are even cases where there are children taking care of children because of all these things that are happening. I thought we are only cleared because of HIV/AIDS. As the cure for HIV/AIDS is coming, coronavirus is hitting us. So, because of that, we are ending up with very fragile groups. I would want to encourage the Government to come up with a very clear policy on older persons and stick to that policy. I know that this same House had developed a policy on children who do not have parents and we came up with a policy that is against institutionalisation yet we come here and within the budget, we put money to build institutions for children who do not have parents. This is the same thing that sometimes we do when we are actually getting to older persons. You have given me the warning. I would want to encourage that let us make sure that we consolidate these funds and make sure we take care of older persons but within their framework without institutionalisation. With those few remarks, I support and we will be proposing amendments because of lack of time. Thank you."
}