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Kimani Mbugua: Sad Tale Of How Mental Break Plummeted Rising Star

Fridah Wangechi | 1 year ago
Former Citizen TV journalist Kimani Mbugua. COURTESY
Former Citizen TV journalist Kimani Mbugua. COURTESY

Former Citizen TV presenter Kimani Mbugua on Wednesday, October 12 made headlines when he revealed that he was being held at the Mathare Hospital over what he termed as a brief psychotic episode.

He then alleged that he was being held at the institution against his will as punishment by his parents, as he was supposed to be discharged six days after he was committed on August ,4 2022, only to remain confined at the mental hospital.

"I appeal to all people who know me to kindly appeal to my parents to let me out of Mathare Hospital. I came here after a brief psychotic episode on the 4th of August and was discharged on the 10th of the same month. My parents have left me here to punish me," he stated while sharing a photo of his clad in Mathare Hospital uniform.

This elicited a buzz online ,with many shocked at the state of the famous journalist, remembering him at the peak of his career on the screen at Citizen TV and NTV.

Mbugua who has never shied away from talking about his mental illness, once shared in an interview that he was pushed to edge after he began abusing marijuana in a previous relationship, which gradually matured into an insatiable need to mask that he was dealing with depression and conflict with his girlfriend.

As the addiction took root in his life ,he went ahead and cheated on his girlfriend with different women which become the genesis of his mental break and was admitted at the Mathare Mental Hospital for the first time in 2020.

"I felt unfulfilled. I wasn’t getting the satisfaction I wanted from the relationship and therefore started cheating. My then-girlfriend found out, it was explosive. I ended up in a situation when I was trying to mend relationships with two people. This led me to the worst break-up ever,” he stated.

The journalist who was juggling a fast rising career went into a psychotic break while working at Citizen TV and has been in and out of Mathare Hospital since. In his podcast dubbed 'The Kimani Mbugua Podcast", he gives accounts of when he felt that he was losing his mind after abusing psychoactive drugs, especially after being told by his therapist that he was on the spectrum of mental illness.

" I used to see things that were not real, In fact my therapist during one of our sessions told me that I was genetically predisposed to mental challenges, because my grandmother suffered from dementia in her sunset years," he revealed.

Following his appeal yesterday, his mother, Peris Wanjiku, confirmed her son’s admission to the hospital in August, but stated that their relationship has been strained since his stay at the institution.

She admitted that Mbugua was discharged on August 10th but upon further observations, the psychiatrist advised extending his stay to monitor her son at the facility.

"When we went to discharge him,the doctor observed that he talked while throwing his arms around and recommended we extend his admission,” she stated in an interview.

Wanjiku also said that Mbugua has one final therapy session before he can be discharged from the mental hospital.

Wanjiku assured that she was in close communication with officials at the hospital and the issue is under control.