Have you ever pictured yourself in your sixties or
seventies? What do you usually see? Say grandkids around you, successful
children, you’re finically stable, maybe you own a retirement home that is to
your liking and taste with say a successful business, or a farm or a ranch as a
means of income and to keep you busy. No hustle, just eating from the fruits of
your labour and taking it a day at time. I mean you’ve already been there and
done that, now, you’re just chilling. Or it could be that we don’t picture
ourselves old at all. We probably see our lives like it is in the twilight
sagas, immortal and forever young, just like a vampire, full of strength, youth
and vigor. Well, it’s in human nature to desire youth but all beings age
whether natural or artificial. The fact of the matter is that the world is
growing old and fast. Even today’s older population that, persons 80 years or
over to the “oldest old” is itself ageing. In 2013 they accounted for 14% cent
within the older population and is projected to reach 19% totaling to 392
million by 2050, more than three times the present.
See, aging isn’t a bad thing as its stereotyped, or talked
about or even imagined. Maya Angelou said“Grey hair, even
the pagans’ respect it” explains how highly age is valued in
the African culture. Albert Einstein to me simply described ageing when he said
that the only source of knowledge is experience. So aging isn’t bad at all nor
boring as we might want to think, Aeschylus (525BC - 456BC) himself acknowledge
that it’s always the season for the old to learn. Age comes with its benefits
and pleasures. The World Population Ageing 2013 report indicates that there are
841 million persons aged 60 years or over, this is roughly 12% of the global
population and a 3% increase from 1990. It is estimated that in the next 10
years, this number will surpass one billion and is projected to more than
double, to more than 2 billion reaching 21.1% by 2050. Today’s life expectancy
rate is at, this is due to factors such as unhealthy life choices, war, climate
change and even today’s capitalism where public and political interests have
become more individualistic rather than a collectivist (community) concern. So
some of us won’t get to sixty. But then what if we hit 60 and over? I mean some
of our parents and grandparents have, and even to some, sisters or brothers
have. It’s possible. Now, how is ageing in the Twenty-First Century like?
that most people don't grow up, they
age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have
children, and call that maturity. But what that is, is ageing. Audrey Hepburn
on the other hand describes the beauty of a woman as that that only grows with
passing years. In Arica, the Oromo of Ethiopia saying
Ageing results from decreasing mortality, and, most
importantly, declining fertility. The UN, Dept. of Economic and Social
Affairs, Population Division findings are that 1 out of 25 people is aged 60
and over in Africa, this is roughly 4% of Africa’s population. East Africa
leads in Sub- Saharan Africa with a total 11,074,205 elderly persons who
majorly live in rural areas and in some areas, make up close to 40% of the
population. Kenya’s coast is known for its beautiful white sandy beaches, rich
culture and even its Swahili and Arab cuisine- both in food and people. It’s
part of what makes Kenya magical. The Coast is also known for witchcraft, which
has existed throughout recorded history and not only in Kenya but also in
Russia, in oceanic regions such as the Cook Islands, Spain in Europe, Saudi Arabia
in the Middle East and even in 1645, Springfield, Massachusetts USA and
was usually practiced either for religion, belief or culture. In 2012, I did my
clinical attachment at the Kilifi law courts in Kilifi along the coast line of
Kenya and happened to witness cases involving witchery or sorcery. In all of
them the elderly were the aggrieved complaining that they had been accused of
being witches or sorcerers. In Kenya, if one is found guilty of practicing
witchcraft with intent to cause fear, annoyance or injury they're liable to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years under the Witchcraft Act.
Traditionally on the other hand in Africa and beyond, persons accused of
practicing such kind of witchery were usually lynched. Finding witches and removing
them for the good of the community was a tribal affair even in colonial Kenya.
In the famous Wakamba Witch-killing Trials of 1931-1932,
Mwaiki, a Kamba woman was killed in 1931 by tribal leaders and members of the
ruling council of her tribe after they established the fact that she had
bewitched another woman in the village. The case was known as Rex v.
Kumwaka s/o of Mulumbi and 69 Others. The accused were sentenced to
death but ultimately commuted by the Governor of Kenya who reduced there
sentence to prison terms instead.
Now back to Kilifi County. In 2014 alone 41 older people
accused of witchcraft were murdered while another sixty-one killed in 2013. The
same year, the Kenya police reported that at least 20 elderly people are killed
monthly in the same county on account of witchcraft allegations. So this means
that morgue attendants at the Kilifi Hospital might have received 20 bodies of
the elderly each month murdered for witchery allegations. In May 2008, eight
elderly women and three elderly men were burned to death in the western Kenya
Kisii district, another area in the country where belief in witchcraft is also
widespread. In such incidences, suspects arrested are usually found in
possession of property or livestock belonging to some of the victims and they
usually produce trifling evidence as defense, such as seen in Kisii where
an exercise book at a local primary school that contained the minutes of a
‘witches' meeting’ detailing who was going to be bewitched was produced. Media
reports also indicate that an average of 6 elderly people were lynched
every month in 2009 in the same district for allegedly practicing witchcraft
and that another estimated 42 older people were killed in three districts in
2008 and 23 older people in three provinces in the first half of 2009. While a
total of 261 were murdered between 2013 and 2014. In his report , Poverty
and Witch Killing – 2005, Review of Economic Studies, Edward Miguel
claims that poverty and violence go hand in hand. Kenya’s unemployment rate
rose to a staggering 40% in 2013 compared to a mere 12% in 2006. As of 2013, 16
million Kenyans had no formal employment and 70% of those who are employed are
underpaid (United Nations Development Program , 2013). According to Mr. Kenneth
Kamto Kilifi's Deputy Governor, there are three reasons why young men kill
witches: lack of education, dire poverty, and lack of employment. Though the
rights of elders are protected in the 2010 Kenyan constitution, cases of elder
abuse and neglect persist in the country. Today in my country, older
people are hunted. They are killed. But witchcraft accusations used to justify
extreme violence against older persons are not only reported in Kenya but also
in 41 African and Asian countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, India,
Malawi, Nepal and Tanzania (UN DESA 2014 report on aging).
In Somalia on the other hand population estimates indicate
that of the 9.3 million people in Somalia nearly half the population – 3.7
million people – are now in crisis and among them are approximately 160,000
people aged 60 and over. Older women are reported as one of the most common
victims of sex-based and gender-based violence. There is absence of adequate
health facilities such as health posts, community health workers or referral
network in the IDP camps they are in. The only health center older people can
access is in the town of Puntland where they have to pay US$10 for each visit.
The health center itself does not have appropriate drugs, especially for
chronic diseases. They are hit by vision problems, high blood pressure,
diabetes, gastritis, malaria, asthma, join pain, headaches, diarrhea, tooth
ache which are very common, name them. Not only are the elderly suffering
in Africa and other developing regions but globally as well such as in Greece
where the elderly are among the social groups most affected by the recent
occuring economic and social crisis in their country, making it the worst
country in Europe when it comes to the socio-economic prosperity of
seniors (2015 Global AgeWatch Index). Or In South Korea where the elderly have
been neglected by family and end up in sex work to meet ends meet. Or even in
the United Sates where in last decade the number of prisoners aged 55
and over has grown by an astonishing 75%. This has resulted to prisons
across the country dedicate entire units just to house the elderly and during
difficult economic times, the issue hits a crisis point with estimates
indicating that locking up an older inmate costs three times as much as a
younger one. This elderly prisoners suffer higher rates of health problems such
as functional disabilities, impaired movement and even mental illness making
life in prison hell for them.
Kenya’s government show of commitment in taking lead in the
fight against Elder Abuse by
spearheading WEAAD activities and identifying
existing gaps for policy and programme action or by African countries
taking an important step by drafting an African Protocol for the Rights of
older people that was approved at the end of May might mean that elder abuse
and the plight of older people in Africa are getting increased recognition, but
this is not enough. We need to ensure inclusion of older people. We need
to recognize and utilize older people’s capacities and they should not only be
seen as passive recipients of assistance. Older people are an untapped resource
of expertise and have experience of previous emergencies. Combined with
socio-cultural roles such as caring for children and acting as mediators in
communities, they provide extensive resources that can deliver high returns on
investment if adequate funds are allocated for integrating/ mainstreaming
ageing into existing assistance activities. Creating special services for older
people is not the answer; rather, integrating ageing into various services
should accommodate their specific needs. There is also need to have in place
social welfare schemes and programmes, in the form of a social protection
floor, that will cater for an increasingly ageing population and ensure all
people everywhere can enjoy an old age with dignity and quality of life. Older
women living alone, making their own decisions, owning their own homes as well
as control their own money and resources also need to be protected. Gender
equality will help a great deal in this fight. Governments also need to close
in the social gaps they have left such as education, employment and
entrepreneurship opportunities for the youth, for these gaps left are major
contributors to elderly abuse incidences as can be learned from my country where
85% of all Kenyans are less than 35 years of age.
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