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{
    "id": 1460212,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1460212/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 108,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dagoretti North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Beatrice Elachi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "When I was in the Ministry, I remember we developed a policy after Covid-19. There would be a department for public servants to seek counselling and self-evaluation. This explains why a large number of Kenyans suffer from chronic illnesses. Stress is the cause of these chronic illnesses. We have, as a country, come to realise that it is not just about money. It is that social set- up. What is good for someone to be in a mental care programme and find himself or herself without stress? I know many of us will claim they need money. You can have money and still have mental health problems. It is good to put mental healthcare in all our healthcare facilities. In fact, we have community health workers. We can train them to visit homes. You will realise why people develop mental challenges, disturbances, and illnesses, when you hear how they speak. It is just because of the few things we are unable to face. That is why our young people are suffering. A young girl will be buried this weekend, perhaps. The parents of this young girl separated but she had everything. The girl went through mental challenges until she decided to commit suicide while in university. Hostels have been taken away from our universities. You know days of privilege when you would walk into a university and eat sausage for the first time. There was the courtesy of training people how to sit at a dining table in certain environments and have a meal. Maybe we came from families where we did not even have a dining table. Today we have subjected our students to funny environments. If you look at the University of Nairobi today, you will definitely have mental stress. The hostels do not have curtains. It is the same paint as when we were going to the university. Despite the challenges, nobody bothers to improve the environment or paint walls to make students feel that they are in environments that have changed their life from the rural area to a university. That is why you find them wearing crocs. It is not that they do not want to wear shoes. They feel that is the lifestyle. Fine. However, look at our campuses. Why will you not find your children in mental stress? We do not even want to make places they can call dining areas or kitchen where they can afford food with Ksh5. Why do we not bring together all the women selling food on the roads and make modern dining areas from where to sell? This will safeguard our students. That is why you will find some of them running all over looking for how to survive. We do not even have health facilities to help our students in universities. Why will they not go through mental stress? Giving the person building Qwetu Student Residences a portion of university land to build there would make students stay within secure university vicinity. We would have safeguarded many things. We have left them alone and you will find a university student from the rural area living in Githurai. The next thing one is told her son is cold in the morgue. I cannot question the university in that case. No. As much as we are talking about this, we must go back to where we started. We must bring relevance to being a university student. What have I come to learn? Students in good environments would then ask themselves how to become better leaders. They already went through a hard life in their rural homes. How will I know the goodness of my country? The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}