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{
    "id": 790585,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/790585/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 66,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Pukose",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1458,
        "legal_name": "Robert Pukose",
        "slug": "robert-pukose"
    },
    "content": "Issues of mental illness are very complex. You talk of post-traumatic stress syndromes and anxiety. When we were in medical school, sometimes a lecturer discussed a certain disease and one would think that they had it. When people talk of mental illness, everybody thinks that they have that symptom. Counsellors are not just anybody. A counsellor has to be somebody who is qualified to handle complex cases. Humanity is very complex. Look at how our drivers particularly those in the matatu industry drive on our roads. They cause accidents and mayhem. These are people who should be subjected to mental assessment so that we can establish whether they qualify to drive safely within our roads. This does not spare religion. We have had cases of people selling all their commodities because they have been told by their pastor that the world is coming to an end. You have heard of cases where people have been taken into a place and are told the world is coming to an end and asked to sell all their possessions. These are mental cases. These are people who have been held captive. The pastor has learnt to hold people emotionally and psychologically to surrender all their worldly possessions in the hope that they will get something from above. Karl Marx once said that religion is the opium of the poor. This is a captive. More often, there is nobody within the society that does not understand the issue of forming cults where people are worshiped and where people even move away from God to worship individuals. So, the issue of mental illness is wide ranging. It has far-reaching consequences like drug abuse and killings which occur almost everywhere. You hear in the United States of America people killing each other. I want to support this very noble Motion. I urge this House to support it. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker."
}