Disability is not Inability

Mathari hospital in a pathetic condition.
21st October 2006

Sometime in the 1990’s I used to visit Mathari mental hospital quite frequently to see a patient, who later died. So I stopped going to the hospital until recently.

Unlike in the 1990s, the grounds are now very neat with well trimmed hedges. However, the situation in the wards, at least the one I visited and used to visit in the 90’s, is pathetic. The sleeping quarters, the food and the general environment are not fit for human beings.

The patients are prisoners of fate and of disease. It left me thinking that the patients suffer worse stigma than any other sick people or any other group.

It may also help to find out how developed countries treat their mentally ill. What is the ministry of health doing about these patients?

When a patient is discharged, they are said to be paroled. This confirms that they are indeed prisoners. But pray why? Did they choose to be sick and did they choose the particular illness?

Wanjiru Ndirangu
Nairobi
Saturday Nation.

Category: Health

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