ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to analyse a number of modern valuations of seniority that have generally emerged in the contemporary Kenyan society and Gusii in particular. It focuses on the effect these valuations have had on the status of elderhood at the local scene. The chapter deals with both female and male elderhood. It also focuses on male elderhood as a measure of illustrating the paradigmatic shifts in men's valuation of this status. The chapter describes how elders in the pre-colonial era, were socially legitimised as having an ancestrally derived authority to speak on behalf of others. It examines how the credibility of these elders has been systematically compromised and discredited as a consequence of modernity, consumerism and globalisation. The paper suggests that when the voice of ancestry is muted, elders lack the authority to check the excesses of their descendants as well as those of other elders equally engaged in such excesses.
