Image: BBC Africa Eye
A BBC Africa Eye investigation has uncovered that elderly people at an aged care facility in Thogoto were being mistreated and neglected. Staff employees are caught on camera violently abusing elderly people, throwing food on tables with no plates, and failing to treat medical concerns.
At the PCEA Thogoto Care Home for the Aged, roughly 20 kilometers west of Kenya’s capital, a staff member orders a colleague brandishing a stick to beat up a senior citizen, who is surrounded by three staff members wearing purple uniforms by a metal fence that is flanked by sheets of corrugated iron at the edge of the home’s garden, as seen in the undercover video.
The workers ask the elderly woman where she is going as one of them canes her on the bottom with a wooden stick, and the other two hold her as she begs for forgiveness. This is only one instance of the proof of mistreatment that the BBC Africa Eye investigation revealed.
The local PCEA church’s Women’s Guild founded the care facility, although it is now run independently. About 50 elderly men and women reside there. According to reports, Nairobi’s elderly housing stock has almost tripled during the past ten years. Many are financed by nearby churches or run entirely on donations and don’t charge rent.
Image: BBC Africa Eye
Ebru TV shot inside the Thogoto Care Home in 2020, and Jane Gaturu, the manager, painted a picture of a secure refuge where inmates were fed and looked after. Concerning rumors that this was not the case were heard by BBC Africa Eye. Two undercover reporters took positions at the nursing home and hid their filming for 14 weeks.
BBC Africa brought up the allegations against the home to Ms. Gaturu, who refuted them by stating that the Home is a non-profit organization run completely on contributions from well-wishers. She also stated that it does not have a dedicated medical staff and is dependent on outside help for medical care.
She added that staff members have been attacked by residents and that neither the facility nor the management support any kind of brutality or hostility toward the elderly.
