At the height of the 2017 General Elections, Rachel Shebesh was a big name in city politics as she defended her seat but many did not know that she was battling depression and bipolar.
On Monday, Shebesh who is the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service and Gender publicly spoke for the first time of her long battle with the two mental disorders.
The event dubbed “Kenya Ni Mimi” saw Shebesh confess to losing political ground and her family too as she gave in to depression and bipolar.
“I suffer from bipolar but bipolar has been there for a longtime running my life without me having any control over it and in that process, I became very depressed,” she stated.
She added that it took medical attention and a positive mindset to triumph over the two disorders but it has not been an easy ride.
The CAS urged people who are suffering from depression or any other mental disorder to speak out and seek treatment.
“I’m talking about this because there could be someone here sitting and wondering what we are all doing here. Believe it’s not that something is wrong with you, you could be going through depression and depression is treatable and it has medication.
“I take medicine for bipolar and I take medicine for depression because when I went into depression, I took my family down, I lost my strength on the ground as a politician just because I did not know, I was not sure and I was not ready,” she remarked.
In her testimony, she has not let this define her as a person or as a leader adding that, “bipolar doesn’t control me, it’s just part of who I am.”
Shebesh flashed out of the public and political scene after ODM’s Esther Passaris elbowed her out of office in the 2017 polls.
Little was heard of Shebesh after the defeat until President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed her a CAS.
