Much more Needs to be Done to Address Mental Health Issues in Kenya

You might think people locked away in inhumane institutions from birth until death will be a relic of the past, but as I discovered it’s too real in the world which we live in where heavy medication is common, therapy is rare.

Mathari hospital, one of Kenya’s national referral hospital is the biggest psychiatric hospital in the country. It is an overcrowded government institution where for most, this is a life sentence, People with psycho social disability know little of the world beyond the walls and bars of the institution where days and nights pass unnoticed.

In 2011, rights groups called for an investigation into alleged human rights abuses at the hospital following a CNN documentary “Locked up and forgotten”.

CNN reported that during a visit to the hospital, they found a dead body locked up in a seclusion cell with a patient.

Mental health treatment continues to lag — where locking patients up and over-drugging them appears to be the norm. Because so little is understood about mental illness by most of the people, family members are often outcast and given over to well-meaning — but severely understaffed and under-resourced — professionals. This is of little surprise when poverty is so high in Kenya

The African society believed that psycho social disability was caused by moral or spiritual failing thus considered it a bad omen and looked at those people with mental illness as though they had leprosy or some other inexplicable, communicable disease.

In the past, if a child was born with a mental disorder he/she would be killed, thrown in the forest for the wild animals to fest on them and if one is lucky to survive that ordeal, the wrath of stigmatization awaited them for the rest of their lives.

According to David M Ndetei, a Professor at University of Nairobi, “Mental disorders can be caused by physical diseases, such as infection of the brain by parasites (e.g., malaria), viruses (such as that which causes AIDS), and bacteria. It can also be caused by physical accidents or through assault, which involves the head. Cancer of the brain and a stroke (i.e., a rupture or a clot in the brain) can lead to destruction of brain cells. There are also certain generalized diseases of the body that can have adverse effects on the brain, such as uncontrolled diabetes and diseases of the kidney, the liver, and other bodily organs”.

It’s the prayer of every mother to give birth to a healthier and normal baby; Mary Wangui was not among the fortunate ones, her son, Munene Kariuki who is now twelve years was born with deformities.

“Despite his disability Munene has been a source of happiness in my family, I had stayed in my marriage for 5 years without I child. I cried myself to bed every night and praying to God.”

“I knew the challenges that awaited me but I had the support of my family and though it was very painful I accepted my child just the way he was”, said Mary Wangui.

Mary is among the few who can afford to pay for a private teacher.”Munene has a teacher here at home and apart from learning the curriculum he also undergo therapy 3time per week and its helping a lot in terms of the he communicated to people” adds Wangui.

I thinks compared to other countries we still have a long way to go with our mental health facilities in terms of infrastructures, medics and just the whole understanding by the community at large, “said Wangui.

Mary lives with her son and she is not considering taking him to a mental institution any time soon. ”I take care of him with the help of my house help and I feel at peace when his here with me, at least I can feed him, clean him and just spend quality time with him,” said Mary.

Mathari hospital which has 675 patients in its general wards cannot accommodate everyone, so those who cannot access the right rehabilitation services are locked up and subjected to very inhumane treatments by their families ,” according to Edah Maina, the chief executive officer of the Kenya Society For the Mentally Handicapped.

“Mathari psychiatric hospital is violating its patients’ rights under Kenya’s constitution. Patients at Mathari are recognized as people with psychosocial disabilities under the new constitution, which means they should be in a rehabilitation program that does not isolate them from their families.” said Edah Maina

“They should be in a program … one that they consent to and is not forced on to them; and among other things, a program that ensures their continued productivity as members of society, not one that immobilizes them through use of outdated/outlawed drugs that turns them into mere zombies,” University of Nairobi Professor David Ndetei.