Alarming trend of suicides dominate headlines

 

In what has become a horror trend in the country, this week more cases of death by suicide were reported.

This has become a worrying trend as data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and the National Police Service show that Kenya has recorded more than 1,576 suicide deaths over the past four years.

On Wednesday and Thursday, three people died by suicide in separate incidents in the country.

One of the incidents was reported in Nairobi’s Kayole area, where a 29-year-old Meshack Ochieng hanged himself from the roof with a rope tied around the neck.

According to the police, his brother went to check on him after receiving a text from Ochieng informing him to go and collect his body from the house and take it to the mortuary.

On arrival, he peeped through the window and saw the body hanging from the roof with a fibre rope tied around the neck.

Nyamira

In another incident, Livingstone Onyancha of Masosa village in Nyamira was found hanging on the roof truss of his house in the sitting room.

Police said the 35-year-old used a mosquito net to take his life.

Preliminary investigations by police revealed that the deceased was last seen seemingly to be in good spirits before dying by suicide.

Elsewhere an unidentified man was found dead by suicide after hanging himself on a tree in Kighombo village in Taita Taveta County.

According to police officers who rushed to the scene, the body was tied to a tree along the Mwamsha River.

The body was moved to the Moi Referral Hospital morgue awaiting a postmortem.

Teenagers die by suicide 

In other incidents, two teens aged 16 and 14 years died by suicide in separate incidents in Busia and Nyamira counties.

In Busia, a 16-year-old boy died by suicide in his parent’s house after being suspended from school in Busia.

According to police, the Form 2 student was found by his father hanging on a mango tree outside their house.

Preliminary investigations by police revealed he had been suspended from school for two weeks.

Separately, a 14-year-old boy was found hanging on a roof truss in his father’s house with a manila rope tied around his neck in an incident at Ikobe village, Nyamira.

The grade eight pupil claimed he was sent home to collect exam money on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said the deceased went to school in the morning, and he came back home claiming that he had been sent examination money.

He was directed to a shop to collect two hundred shillings and return to school, however, he collected the money, came back to the house, and later died by suicide, police added.

Elsewhere 18-year-old Maxwell Odhiambo was found dangling from the roof of a semi-permanent house with a Manilla rope around his neck in Siaya.

The body was moved to the Siaya County referral morgue awaiting autopsy.

Other crimes reported this week

At least six more people were killed in new inter-clan fighting in Matagala, Tana River, raising the death toll to 18, police said.

Dozens of others are in hospitals, while several houses were burnt down following recent attacks.

This is also despite the deployment of the military to join multi-agency teams in patrols in the area.

The fighting between communities began nearly a week ago in the Anole area before spreading to other villages, including Nanighi officials say.

Hundreds of residents from these villages have fled their homes for safety and refuge.

It is believed that the conflict started after land was offered to resettle flood victims living along the banks of the Tana River.

On Wednesday, at least two people were killed in a fire incident in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums.

The fire also left more than 30 families homeless, police said.

The fire broke out in the Fuata Nyayo area at about 10 am and spread fast, flattening up to 30 structures.

According to the police, it was established that it started from one mabati structure and spread to two blocks of building structures, reducing 30 of them to ashes.

Two bodies were later retrieved from the scene.

The bodies included those of a man and an infant aged eight months, police said. Meanwhile, a body was found floating on the Nairobi River in the Gituamba area, Kiambiu, Buruburu.

The body is believed to have been at the site for days.

by SHARON MWENDE