1. One day, we're going to find out about mental health issues affecting those between 40 and 25ish in this country. A lot of us are walking around with depression, anxiety and severe adulting incapabilities.
2. We're at the age where we've finished formal schooling in a country with no job prospects. That in itself is a source of stress and anxiety.
3. A large number of us live with parents and siblings we support. Our parents are either ageing or divorced/widowed. Many are sick with diabetes, hypertension, cancer, stress, depression, alcohol dependency, HIV related illnesses etc. The burden likely to fall on us.
Some of these our parents still work, or are at brink of retiring. Some built in ushago, but live in cities where they (we) pay their rents, inflated power bills, food, and those terrible medical expenses. Those of us lucky to have jobs do, but a large number don't pay "well".
By "well" I mean enough to pay your own rent/bills as well as theirs.
Some of us have, in a way, escaped the drag by getting married, but because we (if we're honest) married for the not-entirely-right reasons, those marriages are fraught with tensions, conflict, unhappiness.
Some of us have, in a way, escaped the drag by getting married, but because we (if we're honest) married for the not-entirely-right reasons, those marriages are fraught with tensions, conflict, unhappiness.
That becomes another layer of stress and anxiety on top of still supporting families and siblings. We "move out" to feel empowered and that we're advancing, but getting stuck after moving can be very stressful. Especially if you consider cost and location.
For example, you grew up in Buru when it was a middle class neighbourhood. You lived in a 4-bed which now goes for like 35k if your family moved in in the late 90s. Some guy has constructed a flat next door and now you want to move coz the hood is no longer what it used to be.
But the only 4-beds available to fit your widowed mum, siblings, yourself and your 4yr old and DM (a tight squeeze!) are nowhere to be found. These days they only make 3bed flats in your area, and those go for 50k and they are dark and damp and depressing. Reality hits.
Such houses are only available in leafy suburbs for 100k+. And your mum fusses over the indignity of moving from a house to a "flat". You consider dumping her in a fit of anger-desperation-sadness-helplessness-guilt. Of course, you can't. The idea fills you with a guilt you can
Only quiet with some booze. So you're stuck in a house where you cannot open your bedroom windows for fear of getting piss from the next door flat whose walls you can touch from your house. And of course, lights on all day in that dark chamber. Stress.
People underestimate the power of sunlight and air. In our hoods, houses built so close to one another as to deny occupants fresh air and basic light are, I submit, a source of anxiety and stress. You either live like you're in a hole, or spend time away from your hole. Not good.
And this is how most hoods are like. Walk around Nairobi and see. Most affordable housing requires lights on throughout the day because they are squeezed and dark and cold. Good housing is expensive and beyond the reach of many in terms of basic rental costs, much less the rest.
Factor in low salaries, few benefits, expensive loans, impossible mortgage rates, unscrupulous SACCOs and banks, unscrupulous MPs who can dare increase their fat pay, poor education systems, and what we have is a mass of people battling depression without any help whatsoever.
The nuance of it is loss of humanity. For instance, Nairobians are what I call the "hostile wounded". We take out our anger and frustration on each other in savage ways. Drivers are insane. Service people are rude and churlish. Entrepreneurs are thieving scoundrels. Rough city.
Blink in Nairobi and someone will knock you down with their car, Boda Boda, even a mkokoteni. If a bike rider assumes you've "cut" them badly in traffic, your side mirrors are gone. If you look someone the wrong way, they can beat you up in CBD and tell you enda polisi.
Knowing very well you'll get ZERO justice.
Relationships are savage. Men raping women. Men faking love to use female bodies. Women doing likewise. Children being abused. Bosses treating employees like literal slaves in a plantation. Leaders shitting on the electorate.
Relationships are savage. Men raping women. Men faking love to use female bodies. Women doing likewise. Children being abused. Bosses treating employees like literal slaves in a plantation. Leaders shitting on the electorate.
Are these not signs of severe mental illness? When you find a DM kicking an innocent 2yr old, is that not psychosis? A teacher beating up a 5yr old? A boss sexually molesting an employee? A CS stealing billions from the sick? Women being raped outside a NICU? This is madness.
And the brunt of this falls on the 25ish to, let's say, 45/50. We're the ones working, hustling, supporting those before and after. If anyone is the "punda", it is us. We're approaching breaking point. I dread the day that happens, because things will fall apart.
But perhaps, things must fall apart and anarchy let loose. My fear- this anarchy will be personal. Nervous and mental breakdowns, suicides, interpersonal violence. I'm not holding my breath for a revolution yet: I'm dreading depression and a breakdown with many of us.
And because our neoliberal oppressors have buggered our health institutions, there'll be nowhere to go to for help with alcoholism, suicide help, recovery centres, treatment and support. This national psychosis will take it's payment in blood and lives. Sadly.
