DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2019.v07i07.004

Pages: 453-456

Social protection refers to a set of policies and programs aimed at assisting individuals and groups deal with vulnerabilities throughout their life cycles. Among the groups targeted through social protection in Kenya are the elderly persons who face quite a number of challenges associated with ageing such as social exclusion, poor health, malnutrition, ineffective home-based care, lack of entertainment and recreation services and low income. Whereas institutionalization of elderly persons’ care is not common in the Kenyan context, institutional service providers can play an important complementary role in the provision of care and protection of elderly persons. The current study sought to explore the roles of various institutional service providers as well as their coverage in provision of both cash and non-cash social protection services aimed at addressing the special needs of the elderly population in Alego Usonga. The study deployed both quantitative and qualitative techniques in data collection and analysis. Data was mainly analyzed through descriptive statistics to establish the coverage and access to various institutional social protection services for the elderly. The findings revealed that there was limited coverage by institutional social protection services providers as well as limited elderly persons’ access to critical services such as home-based care, healthcare, nutritional assistance, recreation and entertainment as well as cash transfer services. The findings therefore corroborate limited role of institutional service providers in elderly persons’ social protection within the context of the failing effectiveness of family and community support structures in Alego Usonga. The study recommends scaling up and diversification of elderly persons’ social protection services to adequately tackle the needs of elderly persons. There is also need to promote advocacy and capacity building programs aimed at providing skills to elderly persons’ care givers wo