GREY HAIR, EVEN THE PAGANS RESPECT IT.

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.

So there you have it, this is where we are today, the tales of today’s elderly community. This is how ageing in the 21^st century is like. How often do we think of ageing and the elderly? How often do we mention them? Are our governments doing enough to address their plight so far? And most importantly what are we doing as a community to ease life in their old age. We need to treat the elderly with the much respect that they deserve, for without a prior generation there would be no present generation. They fought for our independence and have and still are contributing immensely to our economies. Most importantly, they are the keepers of our history as humanity. Is this what we want in our old age? If we do not lead by example, preceding generations will pay little attention and a time will come when there will be no replacement of the elderly. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Remember, Grey hair, even the pagans respect.