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{
    "id": 904823,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/904823/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 355,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kasanga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13185,
        "legal_name": "Sylvia Mueni Kasanga",
        "slug": "sylvia-mueni-kasanga"
    },
    "content": "Sen. Chebeni. However, our Statement was never responded to by the Ministry of Health. That is why the need for a Bill came on. At the time when we were debating the Motion, I remember how the Senate came out fully in support. When we see the statistics, your heart completely breaks. You can see we are in a society where our Government administration is not even looking out for some of these critical things. You can imagine the losses that Kenya, as a nation, encounters because we have mental illnesses and challenges which we are not addressing. The professionals who are supposed to deal with mental health fall so far below the recommended standards of WHO. At the time I was compiling my notes 88 psychiatrists, 427 nurses and 14 mental health institutions for a population of almost 52 million Kenyans is a far cry from what is needed. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I think in our social group I shared a compilation of articles over the last probably just one year, of the alarming cases that can be attributed to mental illnesses. Many people and organizations have spoken to this because there is nobody else speaking about it, and I want to recognize a couple of them. From the news articles that I have shared with you, you can easily see that this is crosscutting from the youth to old people. I think there was one particular news article where a 75 year old man hacked his wife to death. The youth, of course, have been making headlines. There have been cases of Standard Eight pupils who hung themselves because they did not do well. The cases of high school students may be because of substance abuse and campus students because of unmet expectations in love relationships. We have seen and read everything. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, all these can be attributed to mental illnesses. Some people are unable to cope with work pressure and end up jumping off their office buildings. We have seen that; from young people to much older ones, who you would never even expect at all to have issues and challenges. Somebody just jumps off a building and kill themselves. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is really a sad situation. Before I go into the breadth of the Bill, let me take this moment to acknowledge some of the people I have walked with. I have received a lot of support. I will mention a couple of names; they are doctors. There is Dr. Alvin Juma when we started conceptualizing the need; Dr. Nelly Kitazi who had worked at Mathari Mental Hospital for over 14 years and Dr. Njuguna from the Ministry of Health. Surprisingly he was very encouraging when I started this journey, but then he did a turnaround once the Bill had been published. There is also Dr. Frank Njenga from Chiromo Lane Medical Centre, who you all know. He has been in this field for the longest time and very vocal about mental health. He is one of the supporters of this Bill. He acknowledges that there is need to look into this issue wholesomely. We also have Dr. David Bukusu who is based in the Netherlands. He had also worked at Mathari Mental Hospital and had a lot of insights into the Bill. He also gave me a lot of insights on the challenges they had at Mathari Mental Hospital at the time that he was there. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}