The anguish is real for Mariam Mwajuma-an 85 year old granny, who solely depends on well wishers for feeding and upkeep, after being abandoned in the village by her relatives. 

She lives in a single four-walled dark room, with her bed mounted on rocks, making it a playground for blood-thirsty  mosquitoes and bedbugs.

“I am suffering. I sometimes go for two or more days without food. I survive on the little food I get from well wishers and pray hoping to see another day,” narrates Mwajuma as she leans on her urine soaked mattress.

The grey-haired granny struggles to survive the harsh reality of being alone. Her hope is on well wishers.

Her misery began 17 years ago when she lost her husband at Barani area in Malindi town, Kilifi county where the couple lived. She claims she lost everything to relatives who are well known to her.

Madrasa centre

Born in a family of two, Mwajuma who has never been able to bear a child, says her situation worsened when her only blood brother also died, leaving her with no one to take care of her. 

Her parents-Jumaa Hussein and Hamisuu Jumaa, who she says originated from Zanzibar in early 40’s and settled  at Mambrui village in malindi, also died while she was a young girl. This situation forced her to an early marriage.

Her plight was highlighted by a madrassa teacher Marium Said from Mombasa who relocated her to Iklas Madrassa centre, in Mbarani in Kisauni, where she stayed with orphans for upkeep.

But when Covid-19 struck in March last year and the government ordered for closure of congested centres, Mwajuma was not spared.

She found herself alone in the rental house located in Mjambere area, in Kisauni rented by the well-wisher Said.

“I travelled to my home village in Malindi in 2018. When I got there, the villagers who know me as a madrassa teacher, asked me to help the granny because she had been abandoned by family members to die. I came along with her to an orphanage centre in Mombasa,’ she says.

She adds: “At first things were good until Covid-19 struck. We were forced to get her out of the madrassa centre and look for a rented home.

Now I can’t even raise the rent and we have nowhere to take her. She can be locked out of the house anytime,” says the 52 year-old Said.

Zulekha Mohamed, another well wisher who has severally attended to the granny’s needs, now calls on relevant authorities to come to the elderly woman’s  aid. 

“It is painful to see a human being undergo such kind of suffering. It is unfair for families to abandon their loved ones especially in old age,” says Mohamed.

Cases of the elderly being neglected or abandoned by relatives are rampant and the situation according to sociologist Alim Mshauri is attributed to the social economic dynamics within the African setup.

“This is a trend which is going to get worse in future because as you look at the current situation of the economy, the young generation is struggling to survive and parents at home may suffer, not because their children are rich but because life is becoming unbearable,” Mshauri said.

Growing old meant relying on younger family members to take over the duties and care for the elders in their own home.

But that practice is changing. Countries are urbanising fast and the younger generation is leaving their villages in droves to work in big towns.

The national government in 2007 started a programme to cater for needy elderly persons.

“The Older Persons Cash Transfer programme” as it is officially referred to or “Pesa ya Wazee” (Money for the elderly) by laymen.

However Mwajuma is not captured in the programme that focuses on providing cash transfer to poor households who have at least one member above 65 years of age.