The Kenya Human Rights Commission Chairperson Roseline Odede has said this is not the first time the Holy Ghost Coptic Church in Kisumu County has detained members of the public who are alleged to be mentally ill. 

Odede spoke on Thursday saying that in 2018, the commission received a complaint relating to a minor with mental illness detained at the said church. 

She said the commission undertook investigations and established that indeed there were persons being held in the church and living under inhuman and deplorable conditions.

"Investigations further established that the Church has no medical facility or personnel to handle patients with mental illness or disabilities," Odede said. 

The Commission established that the majority of the persons detained therein had mental illnesses and were shackled.

Odede said the church is not a registered mental health facility.

She said the Commission demanded the immediate release of the minor from the Church.

"However, the church proceeded to file a case in Kisumu to injunct the Commission from undertaking its functions to which the Commission successfully defended the suit. Efforts to have the minor released were futile," she said.

To counter this, Odede said they highlighted the plight of the minor and other persons living with mental disabilities and illness in the hands of ‘faith healers'.

The Petition sought orders against the Church and Father Pesa for violating the rights of the minor.

"On 22nd October 2022 the court ruled in favour of the Commission and held that the minor’s right to education, movement, and protection against torture was violated by the Church and its leader Father John Pesa," Odede said. 

The court proceeded to award Sh500,000 as general damages to the minor.

Odede said in addition to the Commission’s intervention, the Human Rights Watch on October 6, 2020, published a report dubbed “Living in Chains; Shackling of People with Psychosocial Disabilities Worldwide”.

From the report, the commission visited the Coptic Church and found 60 men, women and children with real or perceived psychosocial disabilities chained and hidden from view.