Sometime towards the end of last year, Mugo Gachuhi of the Bureau of Educational Research, Kenyatta University, after having consulted with HelpAge Kenya, approached the WAJIBU Editorial Board. He had a request: that Wajibu devote a special issue to the aged people in our society. He had begun to teach a course on this subject and realised that not enough attention was being paid to this section of our population. He found that, in spite of a few notable exceptions, old persons in our midst are often marginalised. The Editorial Board agreed to his suggestion and the present issue is the result.
The sad part about the present situation of older people is that many of them can still recall the times when to be old was synonymous with being respected for its own sake. Society recognised the fact that, in general, older people had gained wisdom through life's experiences, and that this wisdom needed be passed on to the next generation. In those days this wisdom was mostly passed on in the form of stories, proverbs and riddles.
It would be interesting to find out in how many rural areas of Kenya the young are still sitting around the fire, listening to stories being told by their grandmother while the evening meal is being prepared. Perhaps this situation still pertains in certain of our rural areas. But we know that in many places older people are often lonely, their children having left for the city years ago and the parents are fortunate if they see them at Christmas. In an article which Wajibu published three years ago (with the input of HelpAge Kenya) this is what social workers reported: "Sabina's son went to look for a job and did not tell his mother where he went …; Ngumu's daughter has left home and still has not returned…; Ngoma's son left some years ago and has not come back to visit his father."
Another, very disturbing scenario these days is the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on older people. Yes, here the older people do have grandchildren around them, but very often the parents of these children are dead and the grandparents, mostly struggling with declining health and lack of resources, are unable to give the children what they need in terms of material and emotional support. Several articles in this issue deal with this problem in detail.
The situation of older people in the city is frequently not much better. Granted, some children bring an aged parent to live with them (mostly after the death of their spouse or when the parent is sickly). These parents may not suffer material want but they often feel isolated from their children--who are kept busy with their own affairs--and from their grandchildren—who in some cases cannot even communicate with their grandparents in a common language. Then there are also the cases of people who have lived in the city most of their life and have no rural area to which they can return when they grow old. Some of them become destitute in their old age and may have no one to turn to when they are hungry or sick. (See the article by Lucy Maina).
The sad situation of some older people is compounded when they are not just old but handicapped as well. The Honourable Josephine Sinyo, herself visually impaired, draws eloquent attention to this special category among the aged in a paper she presented to a seminar on the subject of the aged held in Nairobi in March this year and which is summarized in this issue.
How can the old among us be brought back into the mainstream of society? HelpAge Kenya shows us some ways: they have projects in which destitute older people who are physically fit are assisted to help themselves through income-generating activities. They also have the Adopt a Granny scheme where those who are no longer able to work are supported by individuals or organizations. Of prime importance, however, is their Education Programme, which especially aims at a change of attitude towards the old on the part of children and young people.
The Honourable Josephine Sinyo recommends changes in the legislative framework, the introduction of laws which would recognise the rights of the aged to social security, to health services and to credit (in cases where they are able to be active in some form of income-generation). But she also puts equal emphasis on education. The educational system as well as the media should be much more proactive in changing people's attitudes towards the aged, including the aged handicapped: respect for older people must again become a basic value in our society.
Respect for the older generation is of course immensely facilitated if these elders are at the same time our role models, if they show us the values by which we should live, not just by their words but by their deeds. You will find stories about two such role models in this issue. One story, written by a young woman, is about her greatly admired "Uncle Tobi". The other story concerns a highly respected former member of our Editorial Board, the late Professor Hannah Kinoti.
Religion as well as tradition teaches us that no society can hope to prosper if it neglects the wisdom of its elders. We must therefore again find ways of sitting at their feet--even if the traditional fire is absent--and listen to them.
