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{
    "id": 907594,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/907594/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 395,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Nyamunga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 738,
        "legal_name": "Rose Nyamunga Ogendo",
        "slug": "rose-nyamunga-ogendo"
    },
    "content": "We just pile problems and we think that it is only the mad people in the market places or in Mathari Hospital who are sick. We should look at our lives and how we treat each other. What mechanisms can we put in place to take care of people who are hurting? People are hurting in different ways. That is why we see a lot of cases of suicide. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the Senators said that men are more affected than women. I think it is because women know how to come together and also share problems. Most men would want to sit pretty; maybe in a big office, to show people that they are doing very well, when they are not doing well. We must have a mechanism of helping our people to get to the root cause. What are the causes of the mental problems that we encounter from time to time? It is very critical. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is also the issue of sexual harassment of people who are mentally sick. These are women who are left in the hands of nobody; there is no safe place for them. As we look at gender based violence, we should also look at it in the context of the mentally sick people. We should ask ourselves: Why is gender based violence so rampant in Kenya? I think there is an underlying problem that we are not facing and we want to show that things are fine. We are not fine and we should get to the root cause and find out why we are going through a lot of mental problems, killings and suicide. We must get to the root cause of the problem before we heal. This is a great Bill; we should not only debate it but also make sure it passes. After passage, what happens to the Bill? It can pass but no money is allocated to it, because it is a money Bill and will, therefore, require an institution to be put in place to make sure implementation is done. We are very good at passing Bills but our weaknesses as a nation is the fact that we do not implement them. If we were to implement most of the Bills that we pass both in the National Assembly and at the Senate, I think Kenya would have moved many miles ahead. Some of the amendments that are being brought, for example, to a Bill like this one should have been dealt with several years ago. Kenya is known for passing very good Bills in every aspect of our lives but we do not implement them. This is a Bill that needs to be implemented in order to make sure that it goes out to reach as many people as possible. Earlier on, I talked about the sexual violence that people who suffer from mental illness go through; then they are burdened by getting unwanted pregnancies. We may not know if the children will also be affected. We assume that all the people who are in the streets are mentally sick. Some of them are not sick; they ran away from their families for different reasons because nobody came to their aid. Apart from the fact that you want to look at mentally sick people, I think it should also be combined with the fact that there are so many people who are in the streets who are mentally sick and nobody takes care of them. Some of them are not sick; they are fine but for some reason they moved away from home. After mingling with the sick people for quite a long time, they tend to behave in a manner that suggests that they are also mentally unsound. 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."
}