Mental Health and Peacebuilding in Kenya (possibly Wajir or other counties)
PEGASUS Institute in partnership with various international colleagues with expertise in the area of peace through health, peacebuilding and mental health (led by David Ndetei & Victoria Mutiso from the African Mental Health Research and Training Foundation (AMHRTF), but perhaps including such PEGASUS partners as Phillip Onguny, Ketan Shankardass, Jibril Handuleh, and local mental health and health systems experts commenced initial planning meetings for the development of a project that will explore and address mental health and peacebuilding in the conflict-impacted province of Wajir in Northern Kenya. As there are some challenges with working in the Wajir province, there is a possibility that the project will take place first in other countries such as Machakos, Kitui, and Makueni, as requested by highly respected, ardent Kenya mental health advocate Senator Sylvia Kasanga. Senator Kasanga has noted that county level interaction, as stipulated in the Mental Health Amendment Act of 2022, places the greatest burden of mental health service provision on the counties. As a matter of urgency, counties need to set up county mental health boards and begin to put in place county-specific programs on mental health. This will also involve the Kenya Mental Health Board and AMHRTF and local experts will lead the project and PEGASUS Institute will provide necessary input and a platform for information dissemination.
This community led participatory project will explore local challenges, opportunities and innovations and ways forward in addressing mental health and promoting peacebuilding within the Wajir Province. Co-creation of the project, from planning and design through to implementation and reporting will include input from the family level all the way up to the government ministry level and include all stakeholders in-between, which will allow for the integration of local ideologies, meanings, developments, solutions with existing global tools such as mhGAP (WHO). Importance will be placed on decolonization practices and the full inclusion, ownership and leadership of local partners. Tools and processes will be translated into local languages to ensure that the process is locally owned.
We look forward to our continued discussions and developments as we gain initial input from in-person meetings that our Kenyan colleagues will be having with local leaders and community health experts directly in and from the various countries.
Our Commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This project is actively contributing to the achievement of the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:
