Shock and grief gripped Korongoi village in Bureti sub-county, Kericho after a 29-year-old man committed suicide by jumping into 20 feet well following domestic squabbles with his family.
Confirming the Tuesday incident, the Bureti Sub-County Police Commander (SCPC), Felician Nafula said the matter was reported to police by the area assistant chief at around 11.30am after a villager, Joan Cherono who had gone to fetch water saw a lifeless body floating inside the well.
She added that the deceased, identified as Festus Kiprotich Bett is survived by his wife and two children.
In an interview, Cherono said she had gone to collect water at around 7am and was shocked to see the water in the well looking very dirty with cloths floating prompting her to use a stick to poke them.
“I headed to the well to fetch water for my daily morning chores and on arrival at around 7am and I got disturbed when I saw the water looked very dirty and cloths were floating. I then took a long stick and on jabbing the clothes, I realized the cloths were stuck onto something that is when I raised alarm alerting other villagers who, on checking further realized that there was a body floating inside the well,” she said.
She added that the deceased was not a stranger in the area as he made a living as a boda boda motorbike rider as well as being employed on casual basis as a tea picker at the nearby tea plantations near the now condemned well.
A resident, Mzee Joshua Koech said the deceased who lived some 300 metres from the well, had looked stressed in the last one week, and had told his fellow tea pickers that he would jump into a hole and kill himself following quarrels with his wife and father. They had however, apparently not taken him seriously.
When KNA visited the scene, scores of villagers, many without face masks looked in disbelief as security officers carried the body away in a police land cruiser, with some murmuring that the deceased ought to have shared his problems instead of committing suicide.
Police moved the body to Kapkatet sub-county hospital mortuary for autopsy and preservation.
By Sarah Njagi
