World mental health day: in Kenya, mentally ill people locked up by their families
Audio 02:20
Globally, one in 10 people and one in five children suffer from mental problems.
GettyImages / Tim Teebken
By: Charlotte Simonart Follow
6 min
On World Mental Health Day, Saturday, October 10, the NGO Human Rights Watch released a report.
Globally, 792 million people have a mental health problem - that's one in 10 people and one in five children.
And yet governments spend less than 2% of their health budget on mental health.
In Kenya there are only two psychiatrists per million inhabitants.
As a result, patients find themselves locked up, tied or even chained by their relatives, helpless in the face of the disease for lack of means.
Report from Nyeri, central Kenya.
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We are in Nyeri County, a rural and agricultural region.
A dirt road, a few barracks and then on the left, a small shed.
Behind these boards, Anna, in her fifties.
She speaks continuously, chaining prayers and incoherent words.
While still a schoolgirl, the doctors diagnosed her with a mental deficiency, bipolarity.
But his family cannot afford treatment.
So for 30 years, Anna has been living locked up here.
It's Gladys, her sister-in-law, who takes care of it: “
She's locked in there because she escapes and she's crazy.
She runs too fast, I can't catch up with her anymore.
In the morning, I give him breakfast.
Porridge or milk.
When she defecates in her bed, I wash her.
Sometimes I take her for a few minutes in the sun to warm her up, but as soon as she gets angry, I lock her up again.
"
Anna lives in this two by three meter windowless room with an overwhelming odor.
In one corner, a basin for his excrement, in the other, his bed infested with fleas: "
I'm so bad here.
I would so much like to go outside, to warm myself in the sun.
I remember when I was in school and I could enjoy nature… Today, look at these traces on my arms.
They chained me to my bed!
"
Ropes hang on either side of his bed to immobilize him in a crisis, his family explains.
In Kenya, the mentally ill shame their relatives who prefer to hide them from the community.
Mary Ndegu works in an association which tries to sensitize the population to the rights of patients: “
This kind of situation is quite usual here.
Most families lock up sick loved ones because of the stigma, the shame.
Mental illnesses are often associated with witchcraft, evil spirits.
That's why they hide them.
It's not that they don't like them, they like them, but it's the only option for them.
They cannot afford specialized institutions.
They don't even have enough to eat.
"
In recent years, Kenya has seen a dramatic increase in suicides and depression.
The government recently decided to take over the problem.
New mental health policies are expected to be announced in the coming months.
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