It is another blow to the family of missing journalist Bogonko Bosire after his younger brother died by suicide.
For four days, doctors attempted to reinstate Joshua Bosire’s health condition in vain before he breathed his on Saturday January 15.
His sister, Winnie Bosire, said his younger brother had shown signs of depression from last year and efforts to talk him out of his mental health issues proved futile.
“He [Joshua] even came to my house on January 1. We had a very long, healthy conversation over his previous utterances that he wanted to die and he did not feel like he would make it through another year,” she told the Nation.
The depression, Ms Winnie explained, resulted from Bogonko’s disappearance which devastated everyone in the family with their parents being worst affected.
Their father lost his memory while their mother developed high blood pressure. They were highly dependent on their children’s help and that is how Joshua, who previously did small jobs in Nairobi, agreed to move to his native home in Kuresoi North and take care of them.
“My mother has kept asking us what wrong she could have possibly done to anger God so much that she has now lost two sons. We are really worried because of her health condition, we do not know what might happen to her with all this stress,” Ms Winnie said.
According to the family, the stress, arising from Bogonko’s disappearance in September 2013, together with the increased responsibility of taking care of his old parents, took a toll on Joshua who resorted to excessive alcohol drinking.
On Sunday, January 10, Joshua left home, went to his usual drinking spot, drank a lot and went back home where he reportedly told his mother that he would die that very night.
“He left his room carrying a bottle of poison and sipped as mum watched before he collapsed,” Ms Winnie said.
His unprecedented death, Ms Winnie said, was a setback to the family which is yet to have closure on the disappearance of Bogonko nine years ago.
She has called out to Kenyans to assist the family meet the burial expenses for his deceased brother and help them give him a proper burial.
“We are really having it rough. My parent’s medications cost a lot of money and we have to raise the money for the funeral and burial plans. I am also stretched financially ever since my husband died and left me with three children,” she said.
Joshua’s death comes nine years after Bogonko, a journalist-turned-blogger, vanished without a trace shortly after the Westgate attack in 2013.
Prior to his disappearance, he had publicly expressed fears for his life due to a story that he was pursuing for his Jackal News blog. BY DAILY NATION