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"speaker_name": "Mr. Poghisio",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion which has been brought by my good friend, Mr. Wamunyinyi. This is a very timely Motion. It should have been brought long time ago. I am actually very surprised that we do not have what this Motion is calling for. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when terrorists bombed the American Embassy here in Nairobi, many people who were affected did not get adequate counselling services. We did not have enough people who could handle such trauma. When a Bill like this is enacted, it will give legal standing to an organisation. It will vet its members. It will remove quacks in that area. There are many quacks going around posing as psychologists, because there is no regulatory mechanism. What level of education should one have before he or she becomes a member of that organisation? Before they are licensed, what kind of experience should they have? There are regulations. This is not something new. I want to tell the House that this is not re-inventing the wheel. There are many Parliaments that have passed Bills of this nature. There are many laws in other countries that we can actually look at and enact a Bill that can become a good Act. 1196 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 9, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to join my friend, Mr. Wamunyinyi, and those who have said that this Motion is worth supporting. It will be followed by a Bill and an Act of Parliament in the end. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, psychology, as has been said, is a very old discipline. It is understanding human behaviour and the soul of a person. It is basically understanding what is bothering the human mind and, especially, the factors and the environment that we live in. Many of our health problems can be sorted out by having many psychologists allowed to work and practise. A good number of health problems that affect us can be sorted out by people who understand what is happening within our psyche, so that we do not have to, necessarily, take medication. In that case, many organisations have organised training, registration and licensing of their professionals. But psychological practitioners do not have that opportunity. The possibility that training in that area can be offered up to a degree level at our universities is a indicator that, very soon, we will have a good number of graduates who will be qualified to join the ranks of psychology practitioners. We, therefore, need to encourage and give them an opportunity to excel in an era where there is no direct employment. When they complete their studies and graduate, there is a process through which they can gain experience. They should be tested to know who is qualified and who is not. When they are licensed, they can go into private or public practice, Government institutions and other places where they are required. So, we need to know who will regulate those people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, psychological practitioners in this country are not very many at the moment. A good number of them may have been trained in religious institutions. A good number of them may be theologians who have taken up those matters and are good at counselling. They may only do counselling in certain areas. But to study psychology in our universities or middle level colleges, we also need to have a regulation on the syllabus. That calls not only for registration of those who have completed their studies, but even regulation of their training. I would like to recommend that the Ministry of Education comes up with training programmes, not just for the universities, but also for middle level colleges and certificate courses in that area. There are people who are gifted in that area. They can start at certificate level, build up to diploma level and proceed on to degree level and higher levels. We should give people the opportunity to study psychology at certificate, diploma and degrees levels. That way, the ranks of the practitioners will be beefed up. There is need for practitioners to go to the lower levels of our societies. There is need for practitioners to go to the villages, districts and constituencies and deal with cases of trauma and psychological problems. There are many cases and not everybody can afford to come to Nairobi to get those services. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in a society that is becoming modernised; a society that is facing pressures of modern living, cases of psychological problems are becoming many. Today, the pressures of life require those practitioners. It is not surprising to find very young primary school children experiencing psychological problems simply because of the pressures that we put on them. I sympathise with the children of our generation. Our own children wake up at about 4.00 a.m. to go to school. You find a lot of them on the road, waiting for matatus at 4.00 a.m. to go to school. They come home very late. During the holidays, we put them through tuition. They go back to school when they are supposed to be holidaying. They go back to start the term. So, we put in so much pressure in terms of learning in our primary schools. There is so much pressure on young children that they require psychological treatment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to realise that children are just children. They simply need to learn. You and I did not spend all these hours in school, but we turned out okay. We did not have to go through holiday tuition or wake up at 4.00 a.m. to go to school. We even had games sessions. We could play a whole afternoon, and we turned out okay. There is too much May 9, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1197 stress put on our little children just in the name of making it through an examination. Are we not destroying the very basic fabric of the human psyche? I have interacted with psychological practitioners and know that they are now dealing with young children. The other area that is causing concern is our family life. The other day, I read about some very interesting situations. What is causing the stress that is in society? Somebody went home and found that lunch was delayed by one hour. He killed his wife in the process, because she delayed lunch. I think society needs to look into ways of dealing with married life and family life. There is so much stress even here. So, there is need for these practitioners to assist us in coping with the kind of life that we have found ourselves in. That is the kind of life which is commonly referred to as \"living on the fast lane\", which make us go through psychological problems. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the needs in the family are just too many. Now, as the children go back to school, if you have three or four children in secondary school, you cannot afford to pay. So, I tend to agree with anybody who comes up with the suggestion that we need to make secondary education free. That is a good principle. Therefore, there is need for us to regulate, or get proper, registration for people who are going to deal with your family life, your children's welfare, the aged, the unemployed and others who go through stress. People who are inclined to commit suicide require psychological practitioners. We can no longer ignore them. It is a way of life now. We must have them. I would like, therefore, to call upon my colleagues to support this Motion. The only problem, as is the case in our education system, is that in many times we are unco-ordinated. People come with degrees and diplomas from places you never know of, and they kind of get a way of practising. The Ministry of Education has the very big challenge of identifying and evaluating where these qualifications come from. Somebody can come with good certificates, but where did he get them from? It is a very tough question. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Education and the Commission for Higher Education must have a procedure of vetting people, so that we do not have quacks or people who just have papers but do not have the qualifications to \"inspect\" your mind and deal with what is going through it. For them to deal with your psychological problems, they must be vetted to be sure that they are qualified. They must be made to go through certain oaths to the effect that they will be keeping matters confidential, because they will be dealing with matters that are very confidential. So, I would like to support this Motion, and call upon my friend to speed up the process of preparing the Bill, so that we can get the Act. I beg to support."
}