Eunice Leila 尤尼斯

ON THE NEED FOR FORENSIC PSYCHIATRISTS Context - Okello case ————— “Dear Spire, Post for me this concern why Specialists are badly needed in Uganda. Underestimated, Mental Crisis is increasing each day that dawns in Uganda, This case highlights what mental crisis can bring forth! C.O.O, Man [Okello] who committed Quadrupple murder on 4 kindergarten children in Ggaba; with a known history of psychiatric illness and sickle cell disease presents after a tragic violent incident involving multiple victims. On assessment, his MSE is intact, cognition is preserved, and Folstein score is normal. Yet clinicians note something unsettling during Court proceedings; flat affect, emotional incongruence, and minimal remorse. The challenge emerges (asserted by Psychiatrist): Can a normal mental state examination post-event truly rule out a transient psychotic or neurocognitive storm on the day of event? In conditions like Sickle Cell Disease, silent cerebral infarcts may disrupt frontal lobe function, altering judgment and emotional regulation without obvious bedside deficits. Standard tools like the Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination assess present cognition not mental state at the material time of an offence. This leaves a critical forensic gap. The real question becomes not “Is he sane now?” but “What was his mental state when the act occurred?” This is why forensic psychiatry is essential not optional in reconstructing criminal responsibility in complex neuropsychiatric cases. Without it, courts risk equating calm presentation with criminal intent, or missing transient pathological states entirely. The biggest gap in cases like this is not the crime itself, but is the lack of forensic psychiatry specialists to reconstruct mental state at the time of the offence.”

My name is Kiweewa Joel Julius. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Social Administration from Muteesa I Royal University Masaka and today I’m employed because of that very course people love to disrespect online. Funny enough, in my entire bloodline, I was the first to pursue SWSA. Some relatives who did the “prestigious” science and law courses are still job hunting while I’m out here building my career and thriving. So spare us the shallow narrative that arts courses are useless. Uganda’s unemployment crisis is not caused by SWSA, Literature, Arts or Humanities. The real problem is a broken system where jobs move through connections, corruption and luck before merit even gets a seat at the table. A few of us survive on merit but many qualified graduates are locked out regardless of what they studied. The same leaders telling students to abandon arts courses held a whole mindset change retreat preaching against corruption, then walked away with UGX 100 million each in allowances funded by taxpayers. The same country preaching “science first” still survives on loans from investors and development partners. Maybe stop attacking students for choosing SWSA and start fixing the systems creating unemployment in the first place. Social workers are still needed because poverty, unemployment, GBV, child neglect, mental health crises and community breakdowns didn’t disappear. The problem isn’t arts students. The problem is leaders who talk socio-economic transformation but never walk the talk.