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{
    "id": 1460289,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1460289/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 185,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nairobi City County, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Esther Passaris",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute. I commend Hon. Mishi Mboko for coming up with this Motion to discuss mental health and how we can put up facilities in all our health centres to deal with it. I know that there are many civil societies that provide training like Amani Counselling Centre. They normally come in when we have disasters to provide counselling. They train a number of people. Under National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), we found somebody from Langata Prisons who said that she deals with very many prisoners. She wanted to be sponsored for a full scholarship to go and do counseling, so that she could be better equipped to help most of the prisoners she deals with. We are happy because we sponsored her. The Government should look at some of the facilities in prison, and make sure that we train many people who deal with prisoners, and those in medical and educational facilities. I talk from a point of experience, being somebody who suffers from many mental conditions. I am not ashamed to say that I had them, when I was young and undiagnosed. I came to realise, when I was much older as a parent, that I was dyslexic. I had no idea I had this condition. When my children were diagnosed as dyslexic, I started realising that I had the same habits. I used to do the same things. First of all, my handwriting is disastrous. I cannot even read it. I did not realise this, even though my teacher used to beat me on my knuckles very many times. She used to tell me how to put a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, full stop and punctuation. I used to miss the conjugations like “it” and “as” because as I wrote, my mind would go very fast. Dyslexia is a gift. Richard Branson came out openly and said he is dyslexic and that is why he is able to do what he does. In fact, one of the things that you really suffer from when you are dyslexic is mathematics. If somebody tells you to write 1986, you will write 1968 because you take the last number first. A lot of parents are not aware and sometimes, they punish their children. However, the children are not the ones who make that mistake. We need our teachers to understand that these are mental conditions where the child cannot help it. The child is not stupid or being disobedient, but unable to comprehend. This is dyslexia. There is also something else called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). My father used to think I was very naughty. I could not listen or sit still. When he told me to sit down, I would fidget, stand up and run around. When he told me go to the corner, I could not even stay there. When you have ADHD, you have so much energy. People want to sleep at midnight, but you still have the energy to go on. I used to say it is like Eveready Battery which goes on and on. At the end of the day, with ADHD, you need drugs like Concerta or Ritalin which are very expensive. They help you to calm down and sit in a class. When you are in class, other children want to concentrate but you will distract them. I was made a class prefect because the teacher wanted to make sure that I do not distract other children. Nobody knew at that time, in the school that I went, Star of the Sea Primary School, that I had a learning disorder. As I grew up, I went to Dr Okonji. We all have issues and we need to see a psychiatrist. We should not be ashamed of it. Marriages normally can be difficult to deal with. When I started seeing Dr Okonji, I did not realise that I was suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 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."
}