Uganda’s premier university, Makerere, from 2010 has had to deal with an increased number of depression among students to the extent of some taking their lives or attempting to do so.
In April 2011, Francis Kigenyi a 23 year old final year student of Social Sciences jumped from the 5th floor of Baskon Hostel and died instantly. The deceased left a note asserting that he had had problems that no one was willing to listen to.
In November the same year, Emmanuel Kagyina, a second year student at the School of Arts in Arts jumped to his death at Mary Stuart Hall.
Also in 2011, Hassan Muganzi, a second year student of information Technology and resident in Nkrumah Hall, jumped down from the fourth floor of Mary Stuart Hall and died instantly.
Fast forward to September 2016, Ronald Abaho attempted to commit suicide after losing his tuition fees to sports betting.
Most recently in April 2017, Brenda Nakyegwe a student of social sciences jumped from the third floor of Mitchell Hall in the night and narrowly survived death.
These attempts at suicide had been increasingly dealt with by the university after the introduction of counselling services at all halls of residence and some schools and the habit had slowly been eradicated among students until Joshua Ajuna, a fourth year student of Forestry poisoned himself to death on September 16th, 2018 and brought back the largely abandoned discussion on depression among students.
The late Ajuna, according to initial reports, left behind a chit suggesting that he had taken his life and no one had forced him to do so. Consequently he didn’t blame anyone like the earlier cases where for instance Emmanuel Kagyina that jumped off Mary Stuart hall asserted that he wished he had a better relationship with his father.
“When someone is depressed, in my view, they require professional counseling as soon as it is suspected”, Chris Bimanywa of Nkrumah hall told Campus Bee.
“The challenge is that even when we know there are counsellors around, their offices are always seemingly locked,” he added.
According to him, students fail to confide in their friends because they are usual and cannot provide the emotional support that is required in that state.
Another student that preferred anonymity disclosed to us that actually friends are what’s required to counter depression among young people. The student, a self confessed victim of depression, admits that if he hadn’t confided in his friends to talk about his situation he would have run mad.
“Everyone must have that one friend that knows so much about them and they really trust because in such situations, they come in handy,” she told our reporter.
Depression is a state of mind that produces serious and long-term lowering of enjoyment of life or inability to visualize a happy future.
It is a period of unhappiness or low morale which lasts longer than several weeks and may lead to coming up with ideas to self-inflict injury or commit suicide. Its causes are diverse and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) over one million people commit suicide every year in the world as a result of depression.
