The December festive season is among the few opportunities when the elderly spend time with their adult children. For many elderly persons, Christmas is a respite from the aching loneliness they experience for much of the year.
It is not only loneliness that afflicts the elderly. Many quietly suffer from hunger, disease and neglect as others plunge into alcoholism because of idleness. With the youth unable to send money home due to economic difficulties, elderly persons have to continue working just to put food on the table.
In a twist of fate, the few elderly persons who have a pension are sharing it with younger, unemployed family members. A similar situation affects the Sh2,000 a month government stipend (pesa ya wazee) given to persons over the age of 70. A joint survey by Kenyan and UK researchers reveals that much of the money the elderly receive through the cash transfer programme is shared with secondary beneficiaries.
“Despite being the most vulnerable age group, these older people are still taking on responsibility for the younger generations and trying to secure their future as best they can," Prof Maria Evandrou of the University of Southampton explains. The survey’s findings were published in 2020.
There's another problem: a growing number of elderly people remain in urban areas after they stopped working. "The old people in Nairobi and many other big cities suffer from loneliness, abuse, poverty and mental health [problems]," reads part of a report titled "Living in Nairobi: emerging insights from urban research to inform older activists." Without an income, the urban elderly live in insecure, makeshift structures in the slums.
James* is an elderly man in one of the coastal towns. He is fortunate enough to have an income because he has a small metal fabrication workshop. He makes metal doors, window frames and shop counters. He is good at his work but gets so exhausted at the end of the day that he is often too tired to cook. He lives alone in a single room.
“I have to keep checking on James after I found out he was sleeping without dinner,” says Peter Mugambi, a neighbour. “If nobody checks on him, he goes to bed hungry.”
Then there are elderly persons raising their grandchildren. This usually happens when the elderly person’s children – the grandchildren’s parents – have to leave the children behind due to marital problems or relocating for work. Children born out of wedlock and orphans are mostly left with grandparents. This forces the elderly caregivers to engage in casual jobs or small-scale trade at a point in their lives when they thought they would be retired.
Then there's the challenge of settling into life after retirement for couples who spent their younger years separately. This often happens where the husband was in employment far from home while the wife remained in the village raising the children. On retiring, the husband moves back to the village but the transition is usually a difficult one because he is not used to rural life.
Sadly, many men in such situations succumb to illness that is worsened by depression. The wife becomes a widow. "A lot of the elderly women in the village have spent most of their married lives without their husbands,” says Mama Halima, a native of the Coast.
PREPARING FOR RETIREMENT
The good news is that many people can expect to live a long life after the official retirement age. The bad news is that, without money, old age can be torture. Imagine living for 30 years without an income. "It is important to consider that we are likely to spend a longer time in retirement due to increased life expectancy. Thus, our savings need to last longer than that required of our predecessors," says Christine Karoki, an insurance expert in Nairobi.
Karoki suggests that everyone starts retirement planning regardless of how young they may be. Retirement planning means thinking about one's sources of income after retiring. That income should come from investments.
Official data suggests that less than 22 per cent of Kenya's labour force is enrolled in a retirement benefits scheme. With those rates, 78 per cent of Kenyan workers will retire without a pension. Elderly persons without a pension have to depend on younger family members for basic needs. With age comes complications such as diabetes, arthritis and high blood pressure, which require money for treatment. For people in employment, joining a pension scheme is the best way to prepare for retirement.
Kenyans in the informal sector can prepare for retirement by investing in projects that will generate income well into the future. Rental buildings and farms are an example of such investments. Those who are well-endowed with cash can invest in shares, government bonds and interest-bearing bank accounts.
SOCIETY AND THE ELDERLY
The elderly have a right to work for a living but face discrimination from employment due to large numbers of unemployed youth. This type of discrimination is called ‘ageism’. The United Nations Population Fund recommends that societies change their expectations about the natural age of retirement because older persons are increasingly staying active.
Margaret Nyambu is an elderly woman selling fruits and vegetables at a roadside stall. Sometimes she hawks her wares door-to-door when business is slow. She does not have to be a vegetable vendor but she prefers spending her days at the stall. Asked whether the business is too tiring for her, Margaret says, "I would rather be here than sitting at home with sad thoughts.”
The elderly often are lonely because younger family members live far from home. Younger people should thus put greater effort into checking on their elderly relatives. This ensures any problems that arise, such as sickness or lack of food, are addressed immediately. The growth of work-from-home jobs presents economically active people with the opportunity to live closer to their elderly parents.
