Plight of elderly who must fend for grandchildren

By Nicholas Anyuor

She tries to stare into thin air with no particular plans for the day, not even an idea where her next meal will come from.

Pisilla Agao is 87, widowed and also the sole breadwinner for her six orphaned grandchildren.

She is worried and wonders what fate has in store for the young ones. Her grass-thatched hut at Kaura village in Homa Bay County becomes too small at night, when everyone returns home, and they have had to seek the help of a neighbour to accommodate part of the family every night.

Because of her age, and with a poor eyesight, Pisilla cannot farm or continually fend for the family, yet the children are too young to venture out.

When we visit, it is 2pm, and she has not had lunch. Her grandchildren are back from school, starved, and there is no sign they will be back there in time.

The sight of a visitor here is welcome, but there is never much to offer one. Instead, it is thought you understand their plight and probably could be of help.

"I have not returned for afternoon classes because when we returned we found grandmother asleep. There was no lunch for us, so we had to look for flour and prepare porridge," Hezron Owino, a class five pupil at Odienya Primary School, tells us.

The script is duplicable in the neighbourhood. Many old widows fend for their orphaned grandchildren at a time they would wish to relax and enjoy their sunset days.

Prisilla is one among 1.5 million persons aged above 60, who form 4 to 4.8 per cent of the country’s population, according to the report on Status and Implementation of National Policy on Ageing in Kenya for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Undesa) and that of Poverty Reduction Strategy Annual Progress Report of 2004/2006 by the International Monetary Funds (IMF).

Prisilla Agao and her grandchildren when The Standard visited her home in Homa Bay. [PHOTOS: NICHOLAS ANYUOR/STANDARD]

The reports also indicate that the current rural to urban migration has led to changes in family structures, leaving older helpless persons to manage economic and social affairs in rural areas, further weakening traditional support system and rendering the old vulnerable and destitute.

The distribution of the older persons is across the country, with the highest concentration felt in Nyanza and Rift Valley. And with the increased number of HIV/Aids orphans, the suffering of the older persons is directly affecting the children, forcing some of them to drop out of schools or rush to marriage before they mature.

At Kochia village in the same county, Martinus Orach, 80, is a loner. After his three wives, 14 sons and their wives died, Orach was overwhelmed and sent away his grandchildren.

"Every time they would come from school asking for food and money, which I could not provide. I am a poor man, and those who were helping me all died. So I told them to look for where they could get whatever they wanted. As of now, I have no idea where they are," the old man, who stays alone in his home, adds.

Despite the fact that the Government last year, through the Department for Gender and Social Services, allocated Sh550 million to benefit persons aged between 65 years and above, the aged persons still face myriad problems. Every man or woman of that age was to earn Sh1,500 monthly, to improve their livelihood by reducing integrated poverty through sustainable social protection mechanisms.

Majority of them depend on the traditional support system within the family and the wider community.

However, according to the Gender and Social Development officials, who spoke to The Standard, the cash is not enough and has not reached some districts.

In the districts where it has been received, the cash was too little to be shared among the large numbers of old persons.

In Homa Bay, according to the district’s Gender and Social Development Officer Charles Merima, they have received about Sh1.1 million, which will only be enough for 750 aged persons.

As a result, Mr Merima says, many parts of the region have been left out.

Cannot help

"The money cannot help the situation fully because the needy elderly people are so many. What we got for Homa Bay and Ndhiwa districts was so little," he says.

The officer says each of those identified in the two districts have each been paid Sh3,000 after every two months. They are in West Kanyamwa location in Ndhiwa and East-Kagan in Homa Bay District.

The situation has attracted many organisations to take care of the elderly. According to Abba Self-Help group Director Emmanuel Obech, 31 old people are expected to benefit get clothing, shelter, food, medical care and education of their grandchildren from the prgramme.

"We have built four houses for some elderly people, and we have taken about 200 orphaned grandchildren they have been taking care of," Mr Obech says.

However, in some districts where the Government funding has not reached, the situation of the elderly is pathetic.

Nyatike District in Migori County has many elderly persons languishing in poverty, with a lot of responsibilities to bear.

In Migori District, another population of 750 old persons is to benefit from another Sh1.1 million. The beneficiaries, according to the area Gender and Social Development Officer Dominic Oyaya, have been identified from four of the ten locations in the district.

Mr Oyaya is not sure when the Government will give funding to the district, even though the number of poor elderly persons is increasing as a result of death of young people due to the HIV/Aids pandemic.

Local leaders have appealed to the Government to add some money to the older persons’ kitty, saying what was allocated was little compared to the increasing number of the poor elderly people left with HIV/Aids orphans.

"Many youth fear helping older persons. The Government should know that these old people have been abandoned in the villages and allocate more funds. Imagine an old person not having the three main meals in a day," Homa Bay Deputy Mayor Councillor Shem Othene told The Standard.