Shakira Adil Khawaja, Founder of Suqoon Kenya, addressing delegates./HANDOUTKenya’s expanding social protection system must shift from responding to crises to preventing them, Suqoon founder Shakira Khawaja has said.
Khawaja said the country must strengthen systems that protect older people’s health, independence and income before these are lost.
She spoke on Wednesday during the Fourth Kenya Social Protection Conference at the Kenya School of Government in Kabete, where she delivered a keynote address on social protection for older persons.
Khawaja described increased longevity as a public health achievement rather than a burden.
“We worked hard for people to live longer. Now let us make sure our systems are ready for those longer lives and that those lives are lived with function, contribution and dignity,” she said.
Her remarks followed the conference’s official opening on Tuesday, when President William Ruto, in a speech read on his behalf by Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua, committed to establishing and capitalising a Social Protection Fund.
Ruto also committed to making the indexation of benefits predictable and expanding coverage to 2.5 million households.
The President further directed that a national school meals programme begin in all 47 counties in the first term of 2027.
The number of older Kenyans is also expected to increase. Specialists briefing the media ahead of Kenya’s inaugural International Day of Older Persons national celebration said the population aged 60 and above is projected to rise from about 2.9 million currently to 6.4 million by 2045.
Khawaja said health and social protection must be addressed together, citing the impact that falls and loss of mobility can have on older people and their families.
A fall can result in a fracture, hospitalisation and dependence, sometimes forcing a son or daughter to stop working to provide care.
Suqoon, working with partners including Safaricom and the Chandaria Foundation, modifies older people’s homes to help prevent falls.
“That grab rail is not just a renovation. It is health protection. It is caregiver protection. It is social protection,” Khawaja said.
She called for a clear pathway to address the protection gap between age 60, when the Constitution recognises a Kenyan as an older person, and 70, when the Older Persons Cash Transfer begins.
She also called for protection of older people’s income, property and assets from abuse and urged the introduction of the Older Persons Bill, 2024, in Parliament.
Khawaja further urged the government to maintain an assisted route for older people who cannot independently use digital payments and services.
She also called for a change in how Kenya views older people, saying they continue to contribute to families and communities.
“An elder is not where the life cycle closes. She is where it turns. When we invest in an older person, the return does not stop with her. It moves through the family, the community and into the next generation,” she said.
The conference ran from September 29 to October 1 under the theme “Re-imagining Social Protection in an evolving socio-economic landscape and climate change: Strengthening Adaptive, Transformative and Sustainable Social Protection Systems for Inclusive Development in Kenya.”
