NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 7- In a shocking incident, a police officer on Tuesday morning shot dead his wife and five other people who responded to the commotion, before committing suicide.
The police constable first shot dead his wife after a brief quarrel. Detectives identified the officer as PC Benson Imbatu.
The five other people who were killed included his neighbours and two Boda Boda riders. They were first responders.
According to an incident report seen by Shahidi News, the five had rushed to the house after they heard gunshots, followed by fire.
The officer, attached to the Kabete police station, was armed with an AK47 rifle.
It is not yet clear what the quarrel with his deceased wife was about.
“He went on a shooting spree pursuing his targets far away from the house. We all worried for our lives,” a neighbour told Shahidi News.
The incident started at about 1 am according to police and witnesses who spoke to Shahidi News.
“Police Officers proceeded to the scene where it was found out the said officer had shot dead the said wife on the neck,” reads the incident report.
According to Dagorreti police boss Francis Wahome, who spoke to Shahidi News on phone, the said couple was living alone in their rental house.
“We do not know the motive of the incident,” he said. “It is sad that we have lost seven people (including the officer).”
The bodies were taken to the mortuary.
The officer is among thousands who have hired houses outside the police lines in a new programme launched by authorities.
Experts have identified psychological challenges as a major contributor to increased suicide cases among officers.
An attempt by former Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet to address the challenges did not yield much and a report commissioned to establish the cause of the suicide among police officers three years ago was never made public.
Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai has since said that the National Police Service has a dedicated department to handle the issues of mental health within the service at all times.
The National Police Service Commission is also establishing a mental health unit, to offer psychosocial support to police officers.
This was after a General Service Unit officer in April this year killed his wife, a traffic officer based at Kilimani Police Division, before committing suicide.
The deceased officer was among bodyguards assigned to Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi while his wife was a traffic police officer.
The officer identified by police as Hudson Wakise is said to have opened fire on his wife after a quarrel over domestic issues at the woman’s house, just outside the GSU camp in Ruaraka.
Such cases have been on the increase lately, with at least two cases reported every month across the country, according to available statistics.
Work-related trauma has been identified as a major contributor to the latest series of killings.
IG Mutyambai had in 2019 launched a new programme Muamko Mpya-Healing the Uniform Initiative to give psychological support to officers.
“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,” Mutyambai said.
“They encounter most of these situations on personal and professional levels.”
But while such initiatives have been started, it is not yet clear whether they are impactful.
On January 4, 2021, a police officer in Garissa shot and killed himself.
This happened a few hours after a prison warder in Mwea committed suicide after killing a police officer in an alleged love triangle.
The two incidents followed the January 3, 2021 murder-suicide at Kamukunji Police Station in Nairobi, where an officer killed his female colleague and injured another before taking his own life.
In March, an officer from Kisii also shot two of his colleagues where one died and the other sustained serious injuries after an argument.
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