Stakeholders in Garissa are now calling for more psychological support to women inmates who suffer from a lot of mental health issues compared to their male counterparts.
The participants, who included prison heads, officials from the Kenya Red Cross and women rights defenders, said psychological support is important for women in prison because they often have complex mental health needs.
They spoke at the Garissa main prison when they joined the women inmates during celebrations to mark International Women’s Day.
The officer in charge of Garissa main prison for women, Mwanahamisi Kamora, said they have been experiencing a lot of mental health issues and called for more support.
“These women left their loved ones back home, some come with their young children. They are counting the days they will be released to reintegrate back to the society. While here they are not sure whether their children and families that they left back home are being well taken care of as they would have done it themselves,” the prison boss said.
“They also are not sure how the society will receive them upon completion of their terms. In some instances there is the fear that their husbands might have moved on and remarried. All these issues lead to mental stress which can be overwhelming without proper counselling,” she added.
She said even though the facility has its own councilors, both trained and untrained, there was need for more to come on board so as to ensure that more are supported so that by the time they are released, they are better placed to handle the situation out there.
She called upon NGOs and well wishers to empower woman inmates with skills that can help them reintegrate into society after release noting that the camp lacked the necessary vocational training capacity to support inmates willing to learn more on technical skills.
“I want in a very special way thank KRC for remaining supportive in many aspects. We don’t take this for granted. Our appeal is we want to see more of this support coming from other stakeholders so that the impact can be felt in a bigger way,” she said.
Hassan Musa, Northeastern KRC regional head, reiterated on the importance of providing therapy to women inmates saying that it goes a long way in improving the psychological well-being.
He said the organisation will continue working closely with other stakeholders in ensuring that the women prisoners get the much needed psychological support.
“Statistics have shown women in prison have high rates of mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress and selfharm.”
