NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 10- A General Service Unit officer on Tuesday shot himself dead after opening fire at his two colleagues, who sustained gunshot wounds.
It’s not yet clear what prompted the incident in Chepchoina camp, Trans Nzoia County.
The officer died instantly according to an incident report seen by Shahidi News.
The two injured police officers were airlifted to Nairobi for advanced treatment.
According to police and other witnesses, the three had not been engaged in any dispute and were in good terms when the incident happened.
Work related trauma has been linked to increasing cases of suicide and murder among police officers, a situation that has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, when stress related to work has increased.
Police are equally exposed to traumatic events and rarely do they go for counselling.
A new programme by the police headquarters dubbed -Muamko Mpya-Healing the Uniform Initiative- has since been launched to give psychological support to officers.
Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai said police officers who are often exposed to trauma that creates deep emotional scars, need healing.
“The ultimate goal of the initiative is to provide officers with knowledge, tools and a framework to assist them to support each other while handling traumatic situations,” the police boss said.
“They encounter most of these situations on personal and professional levels.”
He has since directed that the Kenya Police, Administration Police and Directorate of Criminal Investigations heads to ensure counselling is integrated in the police training curriculum.
Poor working conditions and harassment of junior officers by their seniors have also been singled out as contributing factors to the worrying trend.
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