A former General Service Unit (GSU) officer is looking for a way back into the National Police Service (NPS) after having battled depression for 19 years.
Mbuti Lekapua disappeared from the force after the sudden deaths of four close relatives in 2005.
He says the mental toll of the losses was too much to bear, and that even though time has helped him learn to cope with it, he still needs the service for healing and sustenance.
He joined the service in 1990 and served the country for ten years before transitioning to the police service in 2003.
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His stay at the police service was cut short two years later, in 2005, after he lost three family members at once, and later his wife. He became a depressed man.
“In 2005, my father died, my mother died, my brother died, and I came to bury them. Then my wife died while I was burying the others. The stress became overwhelming, and I couldn’t return to work. No one from the government has followed up with me, and I haven’t committed any wrongdoing,” he said.
His neighbour Rebecca Lesoka said:”This man is my neighbour, and we have lived together for a very long time. He has been going through a very tough time because, consecutively, he has lost many people.”
Pictures of Lekapua in his GSU regalia paint a picture of an able man before he sunk into depression; they are what give him hope for a better tomorrow.
His family says depression has hit him hard, pulling back a man who had a bright future and who carried the hopes of his family and thecommunity.
His friend Christopher Lemaletian said: “He avoids groups of people and stays by himself, so I would ask the government to take him back and first provide him with counseling due to the severe depression he has suffered from being shot and losing all his parents and his wife. The government should help him get back to work.”
Lekapua’s brother Lemakara Benard noted: “The government should follow up with people like him because it’s not intentional for someone like him to stay here. Even as his brothers, we see that he has been confused since those deaths occurred. Now, it’s like he is lost; he just stays here with nothing to do, just chewing tobacco. His livestock are gone.”
As Lekapua battles depression, he faces the challenging task of fending for his young family,who look up to him, having lost his livestock to banditry.
He is now appealing to the National Police Service Commission to pardon and reinstate him.
“The government should reinstate me to work so I can take care of my children. I have had a very tough life since 2005 until now,” he added.
Lekapua now involves himself with tobacco farming on a small scale, basically for local consumption with his peers in the pastoralist community.
By Citizen Digital