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.

IT’S A DEAD END!

My birth mother worked as a midwife at Pumwani Maternity Hospital, Nairobi until 2001. Her job came with some benefits such as community council housing in the hospital premise, which we called ‘kambi moto’ and was multi-ethnic in nature. I spent most of my childhood here, it was a vivacious one. The community was vibrant as well. It taught me care, love and that charity will never make me poor. As kids, we played together and nobody was ever left out. I also knew that if I had something nice and joined the rest of my friends with it, I had to share. Even my older siblings and their friends would lend out dresses to each other. Sharing wasn’t a problem, even for the older.

During calamities like death, we had ‘matagaas’ –funeral meetings- that were more of celebrating the departed and would run through the night. Music and coffee were both played and made at a fee. This was a way to raise more funds for funeral expenses and a way to entertain ourselves as we kept awake. They were also a form of showing support and an assurance that we would be available for each other through day or night. To me they were a way we protected each other from the phenomenon of death which of course is overwhelming. I remember visiting my friends’ rural homes which were in different parts of Kenya, differences such as ethnicity, educational level, religion and the likes were never an issue, we simply were ‘kambi motorians’. Of course we did have disagreements and exchanged words or got into petty fights but we always resolved them and at times, we just forgave which made us a strong united community. I will always believe this is the African way of life, Ubuntu. Africa naturally has an ethnolinguistic nature and has tribal groupings. We have roughly 1000 tribes across sub- Saharan Africa with distinct languages and customs that varies. Nigeria with a population of over 150 million has almost 400 tribes (ten times that of Kenya) while Botswana with just over 1 million people has at least 8 large tribal groupings.

Ethnicity is one of the major strategies that African politicians use to divide us. In 1994, nearly a million people were killed in Rwanda’s horrendous genocide and in the Darfur region of Sudan, where ethnic violence has displaced and killed hundreds of thousands. It is estimated that as many as 2000 people were killed in 1992 during Kenya’s tribal clashes while another 1, 300 died and 600, 000 displaced in the 2008 clashes, 309, 200 are still leaving in IDP camps since 2008 as of 24^th April 2015 (estimates by IDMC). In the past 5 decades, an estimated 40 million Africans have died in civil wars (which includes tribal wars) scattered across the continent, this  is  equivalent to the population of South Africa and twice the Russian lives lost in the second world war. 

Ethnicity is also one reason offered to account for why African countries have little to show for despite it being the world’s biggest producer of raw materials and having still received over US$ 300 billion of aid since 1970. It is estimated that a typical civil war costs around four times annual GDP, that is, four times the country’s annual domestic earnings. Evidently, ethnicity limits a country’s economic, social and moral growth resulting to poverty, crime and at times full blown civil war. It creates distrust between different groups thus making collective governance and public service provision difficult. It also slows down the implementation of key policies that could spur economic growth limiting investment and entrepreneurship. A World Bank study showed that 85 per cent of aid flows (loans and grants) received by Africa were used for purposes other than that which they were intended for. It is also estimated that US$ 10 billion depart Africa every year through corruption -this is roughly half of Africa’s 2003 aid receipts. This indicates that even public funds stolen through corruption aren’t invested back in Africa but abroad. A wise investor who has invested heavily in their country/ region will promote peace and stability among other factors to protect his? her investment for sustainable growth. When a politician incites on ethnic grounds or any other way for that matter, it indicates that they have invested little if at all for that matter in their country or region. They clearly have little to lose and maybe a lot to gain from a tribal war.

We cannot deny that Africa has had its fair share of tribal fracas. But by the same token it is true that that there are a number of African countries where disparate groups have continued to co-exist peacefully (Botswana, Ghana, Zambia just to name a few). I do not believe that people who have lived as neighbours for hundreds of years start attacking and killing each with no provocation or support from those in power. We all were born by mother Africa so why bother listen or act for individuals who are less interested in investing in us, in fostering entrepreneurship or in developing our middle class, than they are in furthering their own personal and financial interests? Dambisa Moyo in her book Dead Aid points out that African cities live in a more integrated Way than you might find in other cities- there are no ethnic zones such as those that exist in Belfast, London or New York, for that matter.

Ethnicity has cost us many lives and many years that could have been used to promote development. Once locked into the ethnic argument, there is no obvious policy prescription, IT’S A DEAD END! Better to look to a world where all citizens can freely participate in a country’s economic prosperity, and watch the divisive role of ethnicity evaporate. Don’t you think?

PROVERBS, IDIOMS AND SAYINGS

I find proverbs, idioms and sayings good, fascinating and interesting. They always make me ponder. In Africa knowledge wasn’t usually transmitted in written form, we had stories, proverbs, idioms and sayings. The young would learn them while sitting round a fire in the evening, a way they entertained themselves and an opportunity the old and the young had to interact as well. Do we remember/ or ever heard the saying, ‘you harvest what you plant’, If you plant good, you reap good, evil you get evil, love you get love. I want to believe this is how the cycle of life is. For instance, what do we understand by, loving ones neighbor as yourself, or its negative version don’t do to others what you would not like them to do to you? When love is allowed to flourish, violence or discrimination will be unheard of, peace and harmony reigns. It’s bliss, right?

Our environment works in a similar way, you give it love and it gives love in return. I can;t help think when we last took time to think of the tree outside our homes/ neighborhoods or that leafy fence, or the grass outside our houses. When did we last take time to think of its benefits to us? Have we lost connection with nature?  Or maybe forgotten that our survival is entirely dependent on its flora and fauna, air and water? We are fed, slaked and supported by nature but we hardly put this into thought during our day to day hustles. Capitalism dates back in 16^th century England in what was known as agrarian capitalism that later developed to mercantilism through the 17^th and 18^th century, then to today’s capitalism, where public and political interests have become more individualistic rather than a collectivist (community) concern. It generally thrives on profits gotten from nature's raw materials inform of what we call goods and services (such as wood, iron, natural gases, the oil industry e.t.c). Its individualistic nature has fashioned a need to accumulate more profit creating an environment of competitors amassing significant quantities of raw materials for profit. This has resulted to over mining, over fishing, deforestation, increase in carbon emissions, negative technological advancements- such as cancerous pesticides and so on. A tendency to save for more profit also develops, leading to cuts in production costs through cheap packaging in the name of plastics resulting to environmental ruins such as the Great Pacific garbage (a heap gyre trash- pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris) in the central North Pacific Ocean, that is the size of Texas State, USA 

Data from the World Bank indicates that carbon emission rose from 34.65 million kt in 2011 to 3.863 billion kt in 2014 in urban areas, that’s 11, 000 times more since 2011. Climate change is real and its not just hitting western nations and Asia. There is change in temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, and more frequent weather-related disasters in Sub- Saharan Africa and other developing regions. In Ada foah, Ghana, communities are losing land due to increases in sea levels, creating unemployment and poverty as there livelihoods are literally going under water. The elderly, are the most affected, since they don't have the strength to migrate to other regions to seek a livelihood. It has created urban migrants of climate change and not just unemployment like we know. Forty percent of West Africa’s population leaves in coastal cities and are threatened by sea level rise. Daadab refugee camp in Kenya on the other hand hosts a tent city of climate change refugees (caused by droughts in Somalia) and not just war or persecution. Between 2010- 2012, it was estimated that 260, 000 Somalis died of famine.

Lake Turkana region in Kenya, a region with one of the most fertile soils in the country, used to experience Long rains in the months of March, April and August and short rains in the month of December. Today the area receives light showers only once in two years. In 1973 the lake extended to as far as Ethiopia but has shrank tremendously into Kenya since 2010. The world's largest permanent desert and alkaline lake is shrinking due to long spells of drought (the blockage of the Omo river by the Ethiopian government through its Hydro- dam constructions is also a contributor), leaving communities dwelling around the lake who heavily depend on it and it's the aquatic life without a livelihood. This has caused tensions between the Turkana community of Northern Kenya and the Ethiopian Merilles community. Lets remember that tens of millions of Africans rely on the threatened fishing industry for their livelihoods.

 Nature doesn’t increase or loose the speed it takes to heal and rejuvenate like we human beings do, nature has patience. We are cutting our trees, killing wildlife and exhausting our resources so fast in the name of global economic growth that grew at only 3.8 percent in 2014 and yet we have a soaring global poverty index, with more than a third of the world’s population living in poverty. The human race isn’t the only specie on this planet, we have a cycle of life and we all know about it. Climate change is causing war, immigration, poverty, disease and death.  We need to start taking care of our environment or we will extinct ourselves just like we are doing to our nature and animals. Time for action is now, let us not wait for the political class, civil society or any other group to bring this change, Start community initiatives towards a better earth or support like initiatives such as the Kikapu campaign by the Myndz community, Wangari Mathaai once said that is very important for young people not to be afraid of engaging in areas that are not common to the youth. We need to get involved in local activities, in local initiatives, in leadership positions for we can’t learn unless we are involved. And if we make mistakes it’s fine, we all make mistakes and we learn from those mistakes. We gain confidence from learning, failing and rising again. The changes we are experiencing from nature today, are human made disaster and not natural disasters. Across Africa climate change intensifies resulting to farming and drought, poverty and increasing conflicts. It's real. The Turkana of Kenya have an idiom that goes like, ‘it will never end like a lake’ (Ans. L. Turkana). Is this idiom losing its meaning?

“The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. You cannot sustain the economy if you don’t take care of the environment because we know that the resources that we use whether it is oil, energy, land … all of these are the basis in which development happens. And development is what we say generates a good economy and puts money in our pockets. If we cannot sustain the environment, we can’t not sustain ourselves.”

Wangari Mathaai.

The Kikapu Campaign: https://kikapucampaign.wordpress.com/