Many elderly people have been subjected to abuse and harassment, including lynching due to lack of stringent laws to protect them, activists have said.
In a report to the UN, the civil society groups say even though some progress has been made, perpetrators are still exploiting gaps in law to commit the crimes. The report specifically singled out Kisii region.
The activists are now calling for the fast tracking and enactment of the Older Persons Bill, 2024 and Social Protection Bill 2023 to cure the problem.
“The absence of the right to protection of the aged has created room for ageist treatment of old persons, making them subject of attacks in communities like in Kisii and Nyamira where they are lynched on accusation of being witches,” the report says.
It is in this context that the High Court recently handed a tough sentence to some Kisii villagers and a minor for lynching four elderly women on allegations of being witches.
Nyakundi Amos Ondieki, Evans Ogeto Okari, Hesbon Ong’ondi Gichana and Chrispine Makworo committed the offense on October 17, 2021.
The lynched Jemima Miranga, 60, Agnes Ototo, 57, Sigara Onkware, 62 and Sindege Mayaka on allegations of practicing witchcraft.
The judges gave a cumulative jail term of 135 years; Ondieki, Okari and Gichana were each sentenced to 40 years in prison while Makworo—Ondieki’s son—was sentenced to 15 years.
“Kenya should take sustainable measures to prohibit all forms of ageism and discrimination against older persons everywhere,” the report says.
The lobbies, however, have praised the government’s Inua Jamii cash transfer programme that has improved lives of the elderly.
“Statistics indicate that about six people face violence every month on suspicion of being witches in Gusii Land. At least 20 elderly persons in the county get killed in a month on claims that they are practicing witchcraft,” the report says.
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