Establish units for elderly, MP tells governors

Lari MP Mburu Kahangara has urged governors to consider having an elderly people department in their devolved units.

He says the department should strictly cater for the welfare of the elderly men and women whom he said have been neglected for ages.

Speaking at Kimende Town during the ongoing national registration of elderly people as beneficiaries of the Kenya Kwanza government Inua Jamii programme, the MP said that every old Kenyan beyond 70 years should be treated like a hero.

He said that thousands of them live in abject poverty despite having laid the foundation of the country and hailed the government for ensuring that their monthly Sh2,000 stipends reaches them on time.
“We know that the government is not financially stable but once it stands on it’s feet again, it will no doubt increase the stipends to at least Sh5,000 so that beneficiaries can live a decent life,” he said.

Calling on locals to turn up in large numbers and register ahead of today’s (Friday) deadline, he said that so far more than 3000 elderly people, orphans and people living with disabilities had already registered and exuded hopes that none will be locked out.

“The government wants to register five hundred thousand beneficiaries nationally and we in Lari are hoping to have five thousand new beneficiaries,” he said.

Kahangara at the same time advised the youth not to only rely on white-collar jobs and instead focus on engaging in self-employment.

He regretted that thousands of graduates keeps looking for the apparent elusive white color jobs only to end up indulging in alcoholism and substance abuse after tarmacking for ages.

Terming unemployment as a major challenge facing the government, the MP encouraged jobless locals to engage themselves in crop and animal husbandry.

“We want to ensure all residents are doing something that is benefitting them. They are earning a a decent living by initiating income generating projects” he said.