14 DAY TRIAL // 40 mentally ill patients have escaped from the Mathari Mental Hospital in Kenya's capital city of Nairobi, prompting a massive manhunt.
The patients were complaining about an ineffective medical treatment, and being kept there in prison-like conditions.
A documentary shot in 2011 shows the life that patients lead at Mathari. While they or their families pay for them to be in the hospital, they refer to themselves as inmates.
*User discretion is advised when playing the video above, as it contains disturbing images. According to Kenya's Standard, local police dub their escape as against the law as the facility holds patients in custody.
At the hospital, patients are tied down instead of being administered medication, beaten by staff, and raped by other patients.
One section of the facility, Ward 9 has been described as “Kosovo” because of the screams that one can hear there at night.
Poor hygiene brings on diseases at the hospital, due to a lack of financial resources allocated for maintenance.
During the report, staff locked the doors on reporters, keeping them there for three hours, while waiting for an OK for release from the country's director of Medical Services.
They were being kept there against their will, with hospital officials acting as if they had the right to turn them into inmates as well.