Managing Elderlihood among the Abagusii, Kenya

Abstract

The world population aged 60 years and above is rapidly increasing despite poverty and the prevalence of the AIDS pandemic. This increase is being experienced largely in developing countries. The older people are consistently and disproportionately among the poorest and most marginalized in society. This therefore calls for the need to set higher priority on the realization of older peoples human rights and freedoms such as the right to life, security of the individual and property. The older people need adequate support so as so enjoy good health and lead very active and fulfilling lives. This calls for research on the challenges/experiences facing the elderly population and their management. There is also need to try to understand their nature and dimensions and sources. This study therefore endeavors to generate information on the experiences faced by the elderly people in terms of their management hence survival in Keumbu Division Kisii district. The specific objectives of the study were to understand the problems experienced by elderly people in their day to day living, to assess the role of relatives, community and government in managing elderly people. and to assess the response on aging by policy makers. The study was guided by the following hypotheses: - Poor knowledge about their old-age management affects elder lies' access to basic needs, Negative/perception of the family and community towards the elderly people positively affect their management and Limited involvement by policy makers affects elderly peoples' management strategies. A total of sixty older people were selected for the study. This sample included both male and female ages between 60 and 91years. Drawn from the five sub-locations among nine sub-locations in two locations of the study area. The household formed the basic unit of analysis while those aged between 60-91 years formed the units of enquiry or observations. Purposive sampling was used to identify the first who elderly people and there after the Snowball method was used to get other respondents. This was because there was no official register for all the elderly people in the area under study. Both primary and secondary data were. utilized. Primary data was collected usmg questionnaires and interview schedules. Key officials (chiefs, assistant chiefs, optruon leaders and community development workers) also provided information, which was collected from the respondents. Personal observation method was also utilized for data collection. Both published and unpublished documentary materials were used to obtain secondary data. The collected data was presented in form of tables, frequencies and percentages coupled with narrations for descriptive data.