Depression in Kenya

So recently there has been an emergence of talks around mental illness in our republic, owing to the increase in suicide cases in recent times. According to a WHO report Kenya ranks 6^th as the most depressive nation in Africa, with two million Kenyans depressed as of last year, with an 18% increase annually. A YouTube influencer, Caroline Mutoko, says the rate of suicide has increased by 58% in these dark times; and with a society with less than 500 qualified psychiatrists for a population of 50 million Kenyans sensitizing ourselves is the only sure remedy.

In the same stride my awesome family of Peace lovers, Peace Ambassadors Kenya under the umbrella name of PAMBIO (Peace Ambassadors Integration Organization) have sparked off a discussion on depression, stress and other unmentioned mental illnesses, and in their own unique fashion topped it up with a day to randomly celebrate one of them, the celebrated then picks someone to be celebrated next. What this looks like is that one day you have 200 guys expressing their experiences with you, your sacrifices, your kindness, your prowess, your aura and how you impacted them; I love these nights, a breath of fresh air in a world where the genuinely good go unnoticed as we proceed to celebrate the political famous.

In the last two months I have had two close friends lose someone close to them through suicide, and sadly enough both have been as a result of hanging by a noose. The extremity of this comes when you empathetically place yourself in the shoes of the late, tying a rope on the strongest beam in the house and deciding to climb up tie the rope about your neck and drop, then give it a few moments as you give out your ghost. A week after we lay the dead to rest a Facebook post appears of an individual bidding his family and friends goodbye, resulting in an avalanche of insensitive comments clearly writing him off as an attention seeker! The results are devastating to the family, friends and onlookers, a talented photographer is lost forever. Even sadder is that we have on our hands a society that such would happen, because this hasn’t been the first case in our nation.

I sip my tea, and it tastes a tard bit bitter, I drop some sugar inside in an effort to sweeten this story to no avail. We, Peace Ambassadors Kenya, have decided to change the narrative for so many of our people, the narrative of hopelessness and dying in solitary, struggling with issues and suffering in silence all the while having a vibrant exterior and online persona. We have decided to start off at home, in our families, our circles of friends and our work places. We purpose to make random calls to a lost friend, a quiet friend to simply check up on them, not texting unless need be to make an actual friend. We have also encouraged random meet ups, invites to coffee/tea dates just to offer an ear. Re-writing our culture is good; necessary especially if we envision to make our society better.

Just before seating down for this I had a full one minute (60 seconds) of conversation with a girl, in her twenties, who had opened a milk, tea, KDFs and killer chapati shop but closed suddenly. She genuinely smiled and assured me that she was ok, that she shifted gears for better chances and even directed me to another lady who started selling milk next to her old shop, great info for a surviving bachelor. Owing to my new patience, because I now appreciate people’s troubles I stand at the ‘kibandaski’ awaiting my mandazi for about three minutes so as to allow the owner to complete his set of dough rolling for the evening batch of mandazis, you know they are fresh in this way. His niece finishes serving another client ‘chipo mwitu’ and I secretly hope he is going to have that for lunch with his whole family or a group of friends, Sunday lunches should be away from the norm! I am served by the young girl, I pay and walk away only to be called out for forgetting my change! Drats! It’s impossible to tip these honest individuals!

Let’s Love, Care, have compassion and empathy!