Kenya’s life expectancy at birth has increased dramatically from 54 years in 2000 to 67 today, largely due to improvements in health services.
However, scientists say these improvements have not benefited elderly people above 60 years.
The life expectancy for Kenyans aged 60 years has remained nearly stagnant since 2000, despite advancements in healthcare.
Life expectancy refers to the average number of years someone, in a specific population, could expect to live after a certain age.
This can also be determined for each age group, usually in 10-year increments.
Titus Agwanda, an associate professor of population studies at the University of Nairobi, said the health benefits available to young Kenyans have not been extended to retirees.
“While longevity at birth has improved a lot, in old age it’s not improving,” he said.
Agwanda spoke during the ongoing fourth Kenya national leaders' conference on population and development. The event was organised by UNFPA.
For retirees, life expectancy since 2000 improved by only one year, while for young people aged 20 years it improved by up to 10 years.
For instance, Kenyan men aged 60 today can only expect to live 15 more years, up from 14 in 2000.
Women aged 60 have a life expectancy of 19 years, compared to 18 years in 2000.
The expectancy drops significantly if one reaches 80 years.
Men aged 80 years have a life expectancy of six years, compared to five years in 2000.
Life expectancy for women aged 80 has reduced from 7.2 years in 2000 to 6.9 today.
“There is great improvement in longevity at birth and at age 20 but little or no improvement among older persons,” Agwanda said.
His data was collated from a worldwide study by World Health Organization in July last year.
He noted stroke remains the top cause of death for men above 60 years, and ischaemic heart disease for women. Ischemia is a condition in which blood flow is restricted or reduced in a part of the body.
The other top killers among retirees are cirrhosis of the liver, ischaemic heart disease, lower respiratory illnesses, road injury, diarrhoea, malaria, diabetes, TB and oesophagus cancer in that order.
For old women, the second top cause of death is neonatal conditions followed by violence, stroke, lower respiratory diseases, TB, hypertension, and maternal conditions respectively.
“TB has persisted for all groups yet it's preventable and treatable. Road accidents have also persisted,” Agranda said.
Francis Kundu, assistant director of population at the National Council For Population and Development, said the ideal situation is where children make up less than 30 per cent of the population.
A situation where people above 50 years make up no more than 15 per cent of the population is also ideal, to reduce dependency.
In Kenya, children below 15 years make up 43 per cent of the total population.
In 2020, people aged above 50 years were about five million – about 10 per cent of the population.
“The quality of life of older people is among the poorest in the population. We must make sure there’s social protection. They are not poor because they were not earning but because they were earning and spending all of it,” Bernard Onyango, senior research and policy analyst at the African Institute for Development Policy (Afidep), said.
Population and reproductive health consultant Colette Ajwang said there are many advantages of having older people in society.
“They can do mentorship and are custodians of culture,” she said.
