More clinics for mentally ill in new Bill

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Mathari Hospital in Nairobi, the only public mental healthcare facility in Kenya. The new Bill puts in place a framework for the creation of a Mental Health Board, which was provided for in the 1989 Act but was never established, and increase treatment options for the mentally ill particularly in rural areas. Photo/FILE 

By SARA MOJTEHEDZADEH smojtehedzadeh@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, August 31  2012 at  23:30

IN SUMMARY

• Government under fire for failing to implement law passed in 1989 as NGOs push to revamp outdated provisions of Act

A new legislation on mental health might be tabled in Parliament before the end of the year even as the government continues to face criticism for not allocating enough resources to take care of the sick.

The International Institute for Legislative Affairs (IILA) has been reviewing the 1989 Mental Health Act and drafting a new Bill in consultation with the government, civil society and health professionals, according to programme officer Hillary Cheruiyot.

IILA has approached an MP to introduce the legislation. The new measures seek to update Kenya’s existing mental health provisions, which the IILA claims are out of date.

“We want to align it with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. It should also be in line with the Constitution by recognising health rights,” said Ms Cheruiyot.

The new Bill puts in place a framework for the creation of a Mental Health Board, which was provided for in the 1989 Act but was never established, and increase treatment options for the mentally ill particularly in rural areas.

“Currently, the only option for the mentally ill is Mathari Hospital in Nairobi. We want patients to be taken care of closer to home,” said Ms Cheruiyot.

But experts complain that the government has failed to allocate sufficient resources to mental health.

Talent flight

Ms Joyce Kingori, the country programme director at BasicNeeds, a non-profit organisation that supports people suffering from mental illness, revealed that only 0.01 per cent of the national health budget was allocated to mental illness.

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“The Constitution obligates the government to provide care to people with disabilities. But very few facilities offer treatment,” she said.

That, according to Dr Marx Okonji, a psychiatrist at the University of Nairobi, may be partly due to Kenya’s inability to retain mental health professionals.

He estimates that 30 per cent of patients suffer from some form of mental illness yet there are less than 100 psychiatrists in Kenya. Most leave the country for better paying jobs abroad.