University lecturer Frederick Gori began an 18-day walk from Migori to Nairobi to raise awareness about mental health on August 18, 2026. [Rodgers Otiso, Standard]
For years, Frederick Gori lived with a pain he could not name. From as early as five years old, the communication specialist says he struggled with serious mental health challenges. Yet, for much of his childhood and adult life, he did not know that what he was experiencing had anything to do with mental health.
He simply thought there was something wrong with him. It was only about five years ago that Gori began to understand what he had been going through and accepted that he needed help. That realisation marked the beginning of a journey that has now taken him beyond his personal experience and into a national campaign to get Kenyans talking about mental health.
This week, Gori, a lecturer at Rongo University, began a long walk from Migori County to Nairobi, covering hundreds of kilometres across several counties to deliver petitions to county governments and push mental health higher on the public agenda.
But behind the walk is a deeply personal story. “I have personally dealt with mental health challenges for a long time, since I was about five years old. Even younger, I struggled with these challenges,” Gori says.
“For a long time, I didn't even know that I was struggling with mental health. I just thought something else was wrong with me.”
His first major experience manifested through sleep paralysis, a condition that became so frequent that going to bed itself became frightening.