NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 21- The country is recording daily cases of suicide an alarming trend, statistics recorded by police have revealed.
The cases are spread across the country, amidst an economic meltdown and increased cases of mental illnesses.
The cost of living has drastically increased with unemployment levels being at all-time high.
Kenya’s economy has been struggling due to a myriad of reasons among them global challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and the current war between Russia and Ukraine.
As a result, the cost of basic necessities has increased to high levels.
On Wednesday, police recorded five cases of suicide, just a day after 7 others were recorded on Tuesday.
The incidents happened in Gesonso and Ramasha in Kisii, Mathira in Nyeri, Ndanai, Sotik in Bomet and Kenol in Muranga.
The victims were all male and died through hanging and poison. Police say they are investigating the cases.
Health experts say Kenyan men are more prone to bouts of depression that lead to suicide due to stereotypes about what “it means to be a man”.
Still, on Tuesday, police recorded two cases of suicide in Nairobi.
The first one was reported off Waiyaki Way where a 39-year-old man working as an accountant at a private firm was found dead in his house.
His body was found hanging on a rope in his house and it is suspected he died by suicide.
He was identified as Bernard Kamau.
In Buruburu, the body of Moses Njoroge aged 50 was found in his house long after he had died out of suicide.
Police said they suspect the two men died by suicide but they are investigating to establish if they were killed.
There were 174 cases of suicide reported in 2020 as compared to 196 in 2019, 302 in 2018, 421 in 2017, and 302 in 2016. Majority of the victims were male, police reports say.
According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), 1,442 Kenyans attempted suicide between 2015 and 2018, which it said were conservative figures as only a fraction of cases were reported.
“Research has shown that structural determinants of mental ill-health such as extreme poverty, lack of access to empowerment opportunities and discrimination increase the likelihood of individuals committing suicide,” the KNHCR said in a report in 2020.
“Unfortunately, suicide prevention measures in Kenya have often failed to address these root causes and instead incorporated fewer effective approaches, including punitive measures.”
Data from the World Bank puts suicide mortality rates in Kenya at 6.1 people in every 100,000, with men being in the highest risk category, with 9.1 men in every 100,000 affected.
Section 226 of Kenya’s penal code says “any person who attempts to kill himself [sic] is guilty of a misdemeanour”, which human rights organizations have likened to “re-victimisation of already vulnerable victims” while placing those already socially and economically vulnerable people at an even greater disadvantage.
Globally, 703 000 people take their own life every year, with the WHO stating that suicide was the fourth leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds in 2019.
The WHO cited poor data, lack of awareness of suicide as a major public health issue, and the taboo in many societies around openly discussing suicide as obstacles to fighting the problem.
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