Several elderly people who had gathered for the registration of the Inua Jamii government program in Magarini, Kilifi County protested over the failure to have them registered for the social protection program.
The angry locals had spent an entire day at the Magarini Cultural centre for the event but the officials failed to register them leading to their protest.
More than 2,000 elderly some with severe disabilities could not be registered due to delay reportedly caused by a few personnel and poor planning.
They were disappointed further when the officials told them to go back home after only registering 300 elders after spending the whole day without water or food.
The majorities were from the remotest parts of Magarini and had no money to return to their homes as it was expensive and said they shall opt to sleep at the cultural centre so as to try their luck the following day.
Mlandi Jefwa an elderly man from the Kaembe Kaisha a remote part of Magarini said the officials asked for his Identity card and telephone number and told him to wait outside.
However, he said he has been waiting for his name to be called for the whole day in vain, and now he had to go and look for food and a place to sleep to try his luck tomorrow.
"I am suffering because I am unable to go back home I9 have no transport to go there, right now am going to look for a place to sleep until tomorrow," said Jefwa who came at 9 am.
Kahati Baya the chairperson of Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation in Gongoni ward said services were very poor and the elderly who are illiterate were being mistreated a problem which forced her to go to the Assistant county commissioner’s office to report but she was not there.
Baya said elders who do not know how to read and write were being treated like tissue paper which is very wrong.
"Those who built the schools are the elders which enabled them to go to school so they should respect the elders and treat them well," she said.
She said there was a lot of discrimination in the process of selecting those to be registered as the officers are selective.
Japhet Kasiwa from Midodoni area said their names were taken three days ago at the Chief’s office and they were told they would be registered in the system only to be kept waiting for the whole day.
Kasiwa said they arrived there at 8 am but the officers arrived at 11 am and very people managed to be served to leave them to suffer under the sun
"We want the government to come up with a proper system that is going to work effectively and prevent the elders from going through such problems," he said.
Some elderly men he said could not walk others were sick but wondered why the process could not be done faster.
"People have spent the whole day hungry, others will sleep here so as to try access the services tomorrow this is unfair,' he said.
Asha Said Omar from Magarini said the turnout was so huge despite the fact that they were told only those from Magarini and Gongoni will be served.
She said they had now been told only those from far shall be served and had to wait again for more days.
"We have been here since morning and we have not been served from six o'clock and there is no hope for being registered,' he said
Tsuma Nzai Kombe the Coordinator of Mijikenda Kaya elders and Director of Magarini cultural center who offered the space for the registration said the manner in which the elders were being treated was not good.
He said the idea of the Inua Jamii program was good and hailed the government for that but the process in which it was being done to register them was frustrating.
"The machines are few, officers are also few, we ask the government to give priority to the elders they need to be protected but so far they are being frustrated in the registration process," he said.
Magarini Sub-county children officer Sebastian Muteti who is in charge of the registration confirmed that the turnout was large but attributed the problem to the machine which was downloading slowly leading to the delays.
He however said they were giving priority to the vulnerable, elderly, and those with severe disabilities so as to register them.
Muteti said in Kilifi county they are targeting 7,000 people and 3,000 will be from Magarini which has the highest number of beneficiaries.
"In short people are many but we can do as per the requirement but tomorrow we are here for Fundisa and Adu location and those who have been left behind shall be served,' he said.
He called on the elders to bear with them as the process of downloading e-ticket was slow.
*This article was written by Ramadhan Kambi for Uzalendo News. Email: uzalendonews24@gmail.com to submit your story.
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