Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula says there should be a law that requires aspirants seeking elective posts to undergo mental assessment.
Speaking during a debate on the National Assembly Amendments to the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill on Wednesday, Wetangula observed that Kenya has a lot of “visibly insane” leaders who end up being elected and later plunge the country into chaos through recklessness.
“People occupying offices of responsibility and making reckless inexplicable and bizarre decisions, these are mental patients. But because they are not tested they find their way through elections sometimes through appointments because when you apply for a job there is no provision that you must produce a mental fitness certificate and so we have all manner of characters,” he said.
Wetangula at the same time regretted that cases of mental health issues in the country were on the rise and called for urgent interventions.
“As society has been growing so have been challenges to people’s mental capability or disability so to speak. You have all manner of situations transformed from internal turmoil of several individuals into full blown mental in capacity and sometimes being manifested in even violent behavior and when you have a legal framework that can help you then have a society that has to be caring to its disadvantaged people especially those who are incapable of managing and controlling their mental faculties,” he said.
