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THE KENYA PSYCHOSOCIAL DISABILITY WATCH EDITION - MAY 2013

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

uman rights are due to anyone by virtue of being human i.e. human rights are inherent not alienable; are universal, interdependent, indivisible.
However research shows that people with disabilities still face serious violation of rights with most of these human rights violations going unreported. This situation results to lack of information to help in policy formulation. USPKenya has spent a considerable amount of time in training members on human rights. The most important drive for these trainings has always been that members understand that human rights are due to anyone regardless of disability. This is because from interaction among USPKenya members, it has been revealed that various forms of violations have and continue to be meted against such persons with psychosocial disabilities. There is need to strongly advocate for rights as persons with psychosocial disabilities. Already USPKenya has reviewed the evidence for the types of human rights violations experienced by persons with psychosocial disabilities both in the community setting and in the health institutions in Kenya. The Bill of Rights in the Kenyan Constitution reckons that:

The purpose of recognizing and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms is to preserve the dignity of individuals and communities and to promote social justice and the realization of the potential of all human beings. Hence agitating for the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities cannot be gain said.
The following experiences show how human rights of various individuals with psychosocial disability have been trampled upon. There is dire need to develop strategies and methods of dealing with the human rights violations meted on persons with psychosocial disabilities. Documenting such experiences should aid all stakeholders involved to start out on this journey of dealing with such human rights violations.

Kenya Psychosocial Disability Watch Edition May 2013

STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION

rticle 27(4) of the CoK on equality and freedom from discrimination states that The State shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against any person on any ground, including race, sex, pregnancy, marital status, health status, ethnic or social origin, color, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, dress, language or birth.
Further to that Article 27 (5) reads that A person shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against another person on any of the grounds specified or contemplated in clause (4). Article 5 of the CRPD on equality and non discrimination prohibits all discrimination on the basis of disability and puts an obligation on states to guarantee to persons with disabilities equal and effective legal protection against discrimination on all grounds. Stigma and discrimination lead to pervasive human rights violations against persons with psychosocial disabilities. This mostly happens in work places and also in the community settings. Here is a narration of a member who has been discriminated against in her community.

Kenya Psychosocial Disability Watch Edition May 2013

Such discrimination even sees others drop out of school, robbing them of a most precious human right: the right to education. I have gone through a lot of stigma and discrimination from my community on the basis of the psychosocial disability. You know how we are in Kenya, we live as a community and if one feels isolated from that same community, you feel like you have stopped existing. That is what I go through every day. They see me as not fit to be in the community. I dont attend any community function because nobody wants to involve me in their activities. Recently a neighbours son was getting married and there was a big function there, but I did not attend it. It feels very bad when one cannot integrate with members of the community. Sometimes even as I am walking past a group of women, I see them gossiping me and referring to me as a mad person but nowadays I dont bother. Before I used to get bothered and I could even insult people but not anymore. So now I just stay here all by myself, with my family. I did not complete my education the way I would have wanted to because I dropped out. The teachers in my school were very mean and they never saw anything good coming from me. I kept repeating classes because my grades were not as good as the teachers wanted them to be. When I got to grade 8, I was not allowed to sit for my national exams because I would lower the mean score. So I could not go to school anymore and that was the end of my schooling. My parents were not educated themselves so they did not know of where they could go to seek for justice and I havent been to school since then. I normally feel bad about it because I know I would have gotten something good from education. I now see those whom I was schooling with living very well, and I can only imagine what I would have achieved by now if only I had not dropped out of school

A respondent shared how he had been discriminated at his work, not just once but four times I have been discriminated at work in 4 different work stations hence, leading to loss of employment. When I was first diagnosed by my doctor as having a psychosocial disability, he gave me a letter that I could show to my employer to enable him and other managers understand my condition. I had prior to that resigned in haste. I therefore decided to reverse my decision by writing a revocation letter and attached the doctors letter. The employer refused to reverse my resignation and I was rendered jobless. I am sure they failed to reinstate me because of the diagnosis letter that I had attached. I did not give up. I got another job which I carried on very well. Unfortunately, I had a relapse for a day and I could not go to work. The following day I went to see my boss and explained to her as I also confided in her about the psychosocial disability that I had been diagnosed with, she swiftly discontinued my services. Being the independent man that I am, all was not lost. I managed to get a job in two more companies and the story was the same. Whenever I had a relapse, I would choose to explain myself and confide in the boss of having a psychosocial disability. That would be my undoing as they would quickly sack me. However, in my last work station when I revealed to my employer that I had a psychosocial disability and requested an adjustment, for reasonable accommodation, the boss agreed half heartedly. He however made it impossible to work with the schedule that he proposed and I therefore ended up quitting the job. With the previous experience of being discriminated at work due to the psychosocial disability, I would not now disclose to an employer about it. I am now in a dilemma not only when looking for employment but also in updating friends or when going into a relationship, because I always feel I will be discriminated. Surprisingly though one lady I was courting did not seem to mind. The biggest hurdle is in the work environment when it comes to reasonable accommodation. I feel the consequences one would suffer after disclosing of a psychosocial disability vary from losing a job to falling out with previously close friends or family members and also loss of a place in the society.

Kenya Psychosocial Disability Watch Edition May 2013

CHILD CUSTODY
A middle aged woman tells of how because of the psychosocial disability, her daughter was taken from her to a government childrens home I have 3 children but the youngest of them all does not live with me. I used to get sick when this girl was very young, and I was deemed not fit to bring up my daughter in the way the society saw it best. So, I think it was my family that organized for the government officers from the childrens department to come and take my child away from me. I just accepted because I did not have means of bringing her up, but if it was today I would not have allowed that to happen. At least I am happy that I am allowed to go and visit her, which I do once a year at the childrens home. She knows me as her mother and I am happy about that. I was told that she would be there till she is of the legal age of 18 years. She has been there for 10 years now, so she has 8 more years before she comes back home. At least what keeps me going is because she has been able to get educated thanks to the government.

RAPE (COMMUNITY, HEALTH INSTITUTIONS)

Persons with disabilities are up to three times more likely to be victims of physical and sexual abuse and rape. However, most persons with disabilities have little or no access to police, lawyers and courts for protection and are at increased risk of HIV/AIDS as demonstrated by the following experiences by one of the participants. I was one time taken to the police station, because I was walking in town while I had stripped. But I did not realize that I was not wearing any clothes. So people around the area took me to the police station. As they took me, I was tied up with ropes. After I got to the police station, the police decided to take me to a mental hospital. It is while I was there that I was raped by the male doctors. Sometimes it would be in the evening when am washing dishes and then I would get raped. This I did not report because nobody would have believed me. They would have said that I was a mad woman who did not know what she was talking about. So that is how I ended up not reporting to any authority. Even in the community, when I had nowhere to sleep, people could rape me, while I slept on the streets. I got infected with HIV and did not know when I got it

Kenya Psychosocial Disability Watch Edition May 2013

EXPLOITATION
The USPKenya research also revealed that most persons with disabilities had experienced a kind of exploitation, be it financial, at work or materially. I usually go to work in my neighbours farm, because I am not in any formal employment. I go there every morning and work all day. Sometimes I get lunch other times I dont. At the end of the day I get KES100 which I use to buy necessities. I wish he could be paying me a little more so that it can be enough, but I feel what I get is not commensurate to the work that I do. I have talked to my employer about it, but he does not look concerned about my welfare. Though even if he does not add me money, I will not leave because even that KES100 still helps me. I once had a very nice and warm sweater. It was white in colour and I had bought it in the second hand clothes market. There is this friend of mine who came and asked me if I could lend it to him for a day then he would bring it back. I was a bit hesitant because I dont like giving out my things, but he really pleaded. So I lent it to him, as he promised to return it in the evening. He did not bring it that evening and the next time I saw him, I asked for it and he kept making false promises. He just kept lying to me. The last time I asked him about it, he was so rude to me. I feel bad because he used lies to get my sweater and now I cant even get it back. I joined a merry go round (Chama) whereby we could contribute some money at the end every month. I contributed my share every month knowing very well that when it was my turn I would get what I had been saving in the merry go round. And as my turn neared, I was very happy as I had planned on what I would do with the money. However my happiness was short-lived. The woman who was sent to bring to me the money never did. I was not feeling well on that material day, and just stayed home as I waited for the money to be brought. Eventually days turned to weeks as I kept asking the other members of my share. They kept tossing me from one member to another and afterwards I got discouraged and withdrew my membership from the merry go round. It was very heart breaking for me but I forgave them. I nowadays just want to stay alone because I get quite skeptical anytime women approach me to join any financial initiative. I feel they exploited me and I was not happy at all.

INVOLUNTARY TREATMENT
Article 16(1) of the CRPD on freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse provides thatStates parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, educational and other measures to protect persons with disabilities, both outside and within their homes, from all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse including the gender based aspects. Furthermore Article 25 of the CRPD states that treatment should be provided on the basis of free and informed consent Several experiences revealed how persons with psychosocial disabilities were being tied with ropes and bundled into cars to be taken to health institutions where force treatment was being administered against their will and consent
Kenya Psychosocial Disability Watch Edition May 2013

Another respondent narrated his experience on involuntary treatment There is this day that I had gone drinking with my friends, and I just took one glass of alcohol. I think that is the day I started getting sick because shortly after, I did not know what was happening around me or what I was doing. That was late in the evening and my friends and other people in the village took me, tied me with ropes then using a bicycle they took me to the health dispensary. They did not beat me, but once at the hospital, the medical practitioners beat me, saying it was to bring me back to my senses. At the hospital, I was injected with a wrong drug; I think it is the drug that is used to calm people with mental disabilities. Another form of involuntary treatment was on the aspect of ECT, whereby some persons with psychosocial disabilities are subjected to it without their free and informed consent. I was not feeling very well and I found myself in hospital having been tired both hands and feet. I later was told that I had been disturbing the neighbours and that is why I had been tied up like that. At the hospital, the doctor wrote in my file that I was to go through ECT. I was not explained to what was the advantage of ECT or even the disadvantages. I just went through it and it was just a harrowing experience. Later on, after the ECT treatment, I forgot most of the things that I knew. The people too were not spared. I couldnt remember very vital things and this was very frustrating. If I had been given all the facts about ECT, then I would have made an informed decision to go on with this form of treatment or not

PHYSICAL AND VERBAL ABUSE

This study also documented severe cases of abuse in the family, community and in health institutions Physical abuse An interviewee described her harrowing experience in the hands of her brothers. I live at home in my parents home. My parents are both deceased though I live in the house that they lived. My elder brothers are in the same compound and they are very hostile to me. They believe that they are the only ones with the right of living in our parents home. They have tried all ways to kick me out, but I have nowhere to go. They have labeled me a mad woman and that I belong to the streets. One time they destroyed my house, and it was the church members who intervened, and built my house again. There is one time that they beat me so severely that I thought I would die. The neighbours came to our home to rescue me. These scars (shows scars on the body) I got from that beating. I reported to the chief who took the case to the police station. The policemen came and arrested one of my brothers who were inciting the rest about me. Once he was taken to court, he was charged with assault and he was given a choice of a 2 year sentence or fine. He paid the fine. He was also issued with restraining orders on never to come near my house again. Since then, I have been fine with my children and the brothers dont bother me anymore. I am happy the chief took action.

I was just at home and was having many thoughts in my mind. I think I kept pacing up and down the compound and was not talking to anyone. This is because I had this feeling of being unwanted so I just wanted to keep to myself. My husband and children tried to talk to me but I couldnt talk to them. That is when they held me by force, and they tied me up with ropes so that I could not move. They then put me in a car and I was taken to a mental health hospital. While we reached at the hospital, the doctors just injected me, without even my consent or even without informing me why I was being injected. It was a very terrible experience that I dont like remembering. I wish they could just have advised me politely to seek medical attention which I would have done without going to the extent of humiliating me by tying me up with ropes like an animal. It felt very bad, and I always hope that such an incident will not happen again.

Kenya Psychosocial Disability Watch Edition May 2013

MISDIAGNOSIS
Another experience was shared on what a respondent endured as a result of misdiagnosis. My mother noticed of my psychosocial disability while I was in college and asked me to seek psychiatry attention. I have not yet been diagnosed of any specific mental health problem because every time I see a psychiatrist, each gives me a different diagnosis. Recently, I could not sleep for days and was getting highly irritated. I could not keep a job and relationships became a nightmare. I therefore decided to seek medical attention and went to a highly recommended psychiatrist. To start with, from the minute I got to her office to the time I left, she never looked at me even once. She just kept scribbling on her note pad as I talked and this made me feel as if I was having a conversation with a wall. She treated me like a statue or a robot. She did not look up to listen to me, ask me questions or even show interest in what I was telling her. After I had finished sharing my experience, she tore a page from her notepad with a prescription and handed it to me and asked me to take it to the pharmacy and get the drugs prescribed. She never bothered with explaining to me what medication it was or why I needed it. I am still very bitter with her by the way. So off I went to the pharmacy and got the medication. 2 days after beginning the dose, I started shaking. My hands could not hold anything, my neck could not hold my head, and the head kept shaking. This continued even while I lay in bed. It was a very horrible experience. I stopped taking that medication and vowed not to go back to the psychiatrist again. Most respondents shared how their freedom of movement had been curtailed I am usually not allowed to go visit friends. My mother tells me that I should not leave our home because I will go to disturb other people. When there are ceremonies in the neighbourhood, I dont attend because my mother will not let me. I always have this feeling of being in bondage but I have learnt to live the way she wants. I am not that social so I do not have many friends. Once in a while a neighbour invites me to her house to help her in cooking, but my mother will not let me. I studied cookery in college and was working in a big hotel but left the work after I got married. Therefore my neighbours know that my cookery skills are really good and at times they ask me to cook for occasions, then I can earn some income. So these are the times that my mother refuses me to go out. Since she provides anything that I require, including paying for my medication, I have decided to leave how she wants me to. Today she allowed me to attend the support group meeting. Am happy she knows the importance of the support group and she encourages me to attend it.

LIBERTY AND SECURITY OF PERSON

Another respondent shared her experience of what she went through every time she was locked up. When I become very sick, I go around beating women who wear trousers. At such times, the sickness escalates because I refuse to take medicine. It is at these times that my family locks me up in my room. They lock me up all day though they give me food. My room only has a mattress; the bed was removed because I could jump on top of it to an extent of breaking it. I have a very big problem in being locked because my room does not have a washroom. So every time am locked up, I have nowhere to use as my washroom so I end up using the floor. Sometimes the smell of the waste is usually so much to bear that I hit the door so that I can wash the mess. I usually suffer so much and I have even informed my family but they hear none of it. Last week, I was having my menstrual flow and I did not have any sanitary pad. You can imagine for the 3 days the agony I went through. Now all my petticoats are discoloured and am still wearing them because I have no choice.

Kenya Psychosocial Disability Watch Edition May 2013

Our voice the Cape Town Declaration

We want, like everyone else, to vote. We want to marry, form relationships, have fulfilled family lives, raise children, and be treated as others in the workplace with equal remuneration for equal work. For as long as others decide for us, we do not have rights. No one can speak for us. We want to speak for ourselves. We want to be embraced with respect and love. We are deeply concerned about the extent of suffering experienced by our brothers and sisters on our vast continent. Poverty, human rights violations and psychosocial disability go hand in hand. We know that there can be no dignity where poverty exists. No medicines or sophisticated western technology can eradicate poverty and restore dignity. The history of psychiatry haunts our present. Our people remain chained and shackled in institutions and by ideas which our colonizers brought to our continent. We want everyone to acknowledge their participation in calling us names and treating us as lesser beings. These are the barriers to our full enjoyment of life. These barriers are disabling us and these prevent us from fully participating in society. We wish for a better world in which all people are treated equally, a world where human rights belong to everyone. We invite you to walk beside us. We know where we want to go.

We recognise that people with psychosocial disabilities have been viewed in bad ways, with derogatory words being used to describe us such as mentally disturbed, having unsound minds, idiots, lunatics, imbeciles and many other hurtful labels. We are people first! We have potentials, abilities, talents and each of us can make a great contribution to the world. We in the past, presently and in the future, have, do and will continue to make great contributions if barriers are removed.

We believe in an Africa in which all people are free to be themselves and to be treated with dignity. We are all different, unique and our differences should be appreciated as an issue of diversity. We need all people to embrace this diversity. Diversity is beautiful. There can be no mental health without our expertise. We are the knowers and yet we remain the untapped resource in mental health care. We are the experts. We want to be listened to and to fully participate in our life decisions. We must be the masters of our life journeys.

Users and Survivors of Psychiatry in Kenya.

(USPKenya)
P.O. Box 10071 00100 Nairobi Kenya. Tel: 0722 884565 Email: info@uspkenya.com Website: www.uspkenya.com

D-Store Media 0720 944279

Kenya Psychosocial Disability Watch Edition May 2013