Mzee John Wambua, 85, dreads going to hospital.

And rightly so. Every time he seeks medication for backache, he stands in the queue for many hours as younger and more energetic patients jostle for space.

"Even when I am very sick, I queue like everyone else," Wambua says.

"If there was a special queue for old people, I would not suffer the way I do."

Like Wambua, elderly people face many forms of discrimination. Because many in their generation in Africa have little or no education, they are regarded as useless with little contribution to make in society.

Youngsters and middle-aged people view the elderly as frail, sickly people with bent backs, whose demand for care is an unnecessary burden.

The discrimination ranges from physical abuses, denial of food to lack of access to health and other basic needs.

They are also hardly consulted when countries make policies on important social issues.
Although the elderly are the foundation of every nation, efforts by the United Nations to guarantee their rights are yet to be felt.

Dr Susan Magada, a deputy Director of Medical Services, says the elderly are discriminated against even in hospitals, therefore limiting their access to health.

"In many parts of the continent, including Kenya, older persons are abused, raped, assaulted, tortured, maimed and killed by the very people whom they should turn to for support," says Magada.

And although the aged are among "the poorest of the poor," poverty eradication programmes are silent on their plight.

Magada said just like any other age bracket, elderly people have special needs that have been neglected for a long time.

She says the disintegration of the extended family where the younger generations would care for the aged has also left them with no one to look after their needs.
As families become smaller and younger people move to towns, old people are being left to carry their burden alone in the village.

The UN defines older persons as those aged 60 years and above.

The population has been increasing rapidly, from 200 million in 1950 to 350 million by 1975.

It is estimated that Kenya's population of those aged 60 and above will rise from the current 1.3 million to 7.2 million by 2050.

East Africa's figure is expected to jump from the current 12 to 56 million in the same period.

The proportion of older persons worldwide is expected to double between 2005 and 2050.
The UN estimates that the world population of older persons will, for the first time in history, be higher than the population of children aged 14 years and below by 2050.

Faced with such a scenario, African governments and the civil society should work out urgent measures to ensure elderly people spend their sunset days with dignity.

Growing old in Africa is particularly a tormenting experience because there are no policies to care for the elderly.

Unlike in developed countries, old people in Africa retire to a life with no money to spend.

This is partly due to the fact that salaries are too low for those in employment to save for retirement and that few African governments give stipends to the elderly.

Dr Mugo Gachuhi, a sociology lecturer at Kenyatta University, says it is unfair to retire people at 55 years old because they are still productive.

"Do they retire because the body can't function or is it because their mental capacity vanishes? Perhaps the term retirement is an abuse," Gachuhi says.

Most professionals take up their own private practice after retiring from formal employment, and their new ventures are as successful as those run by younger people, Gachuhi argues.

African governments, he said, should also consider giving stipends to elderly people to ease their burden.

"It wouldn't take a lot of effort to do so. After all, they have worked so hard to bring the nation where it is."

HelpAge International, an organisation campaigning for the rights of elderly people, however, says the UN definition of old age appears to be irrelevant in the African situation.

This is because in some rural and remote areas, where birth is never registered, physical features such as graying hair, wrinkles, failing eyesight and diseases such as arthritis, are used to define old age.

In 2002, countries meeting at a UN conference on ageing in Madrid, Spain, agreed on a plan of action to improve elderly people's access to health, participation in policies and improvement of their rights.

Although Kenya was represented at the meeting, there are no tangible steps yet to improve their lot. The formulation of a policy on ageing has dragged on for years, and an official of the Ministry of Culture was noncommittal on when it would be completed.

Mr Eric Kimani, the chairman of HelpAge Kenya, says the best bet for elderly citizens is the enactment of the draft constitution, which guarantees them rights enjoyed by every other citizen.

Article 38 of the draft guarantees elderly people all freedoms in the Bill of Rights.
It asks that they receive "reasonable care" from their families and empowers Parliament to make and pass laws that protect their rights.

However, the constitutional review process is stuck as politicians fight over the sharing of power, and there are no signs yet that the draft would be passed soon.

To address lack of access to health, HelpAge has initiated the Older Citizens Monitoring Project, through which aged people are recording their experiences whenever they visit hospital.

Mr Ephraim Gathaiya, the organisation's executive director, says they had recorded cases of mistreatment, long hours in queues, poor explanation on dosages and other discriminative practices.

"We hope to use this evidence to push the Government to speed up a policy to give them the care they deserve," he said.

However, Magada said the Ministry of Health was working on a strategic plan for the next five years, which, among other things, addresses health needs for the aged.

For instance, it seeks to train health workers to be sensitive to the needs of the elderly.
As the Aids scourge wipes out those in the prime, the elderly have been forced to assume more responsibilities in society by taking care of not only their dying children, but also grandchildren.

"Despite glaring evidence that this problem exposes them to the risk of infection and impoverishes them even more, HIV intervention programmes do not target them," Magada said.