A 26-year-old farmhand committed suicide in Metinkuar village in Transmara West Sub County by hanging himself on a tree in the compound of his employer on Sunday morning.
Confirming the incident, Narok county Police Commander Mr. John Kizito Mutoro said the late Kevin Ingunzi killed himself by hanging himself on a big tree using a manila rope in the compound of his employer Mr. Daniel Mungush and efforts to save him did not bear fruits.
The matter is however still under investigations. The body of the deceased has been moved to St. Joseph Hospital mortuary in Kilgoris town pending postmortem and further investigation into the incident as the family prepares for the burial.
This comes after a 16-year-old schoolboy earlier on committed suicide in Chebulu village in Emurua –Dikirr in Transmara East Sub County Wednesday evening after his parents turned down his request to be circumcised.
Also in the same month, 16-year-old girl committed suicide by hanging herself on a tree in the family compound in Ntamama village in Njipship area in Transmara East Sub County last month.
Since November last year, several cases of suicide have been reported in the county which included those of minors and university students.
Suicide is connected to the state of the mental health of a person who commits or attempts to commit it. Suicide rates among teenagers and young people has been rising in the recent past. According to experts, exerting pressure of any kind to the young minds of teenagers can drive them to commit suicide.
Data from the Ministry of Health shows that more than 370 people have committed suicide in Kenya in the last six months of 2020 pointing to the gravity of the mental health situation in the country since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.
According to WHO, about 800,000 people die from suicide each year (that is one person every 40 seconds), majority of them aged 15-29, in which age-group suicide is the second leading cause of death.
Data from the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) released on September 10, 2020 to commemorate the World Suicide Prevention Day show a about 196 people committed suicide in the country in 2019 while hundreds of others attempted to commit it.
But this figure only shows reported cases whereas there are many other suicide cases that go unreported in the country.
In 2017, a WHO report ranked Kenya as the sixth African country and 117th globally with the highest levels of depression with at least 1.9 million diagnosed Kenyans suffering from depression.
By Mabel Keya-Shikuku
