Police officers in Malindi Sub County are investigating an incident in which a six-year-old boy died while hanging from the roof of their house in what is believed to be a case of suicide.
The incident that took place at about 8am Thursday morning at Fundi Hamisi village in Ganda sub-location has baffled many as it is inconceivable that a child of such tender age could commit suicide.
What is more intriguing is that the youngster died early in the morning in the presence of his younger siblings aged four and two while they were playing inside the house.
The boy was found dangling from the roof with his neck tied with a piece of cloth to one of the rafters of the house minutes after he and his siblings entered the mud-walled ramshackle to continue playing after a heavy downpour disrupted their happy moments outside the house.
A neighbour, Ms Grace Kalama, said she saw the boy hanging with a piece of kanga tied around his neck. His legs were bent and the boy was almost kneeling on the floor.
Ms Kalama said the children were playing with a wooden toy car outside but entered the house when it started raining. She said there was no adult in the house at the time since the boy’s mother had left the house in the morning to look for casual work in Malindi Town.
She said some minutes after the deceased and his siblings entered their mother’s house, she heard some cries from the house and asked her own children to go and check what could have been the matter.
“My children came and told me that the deceased boy was swaying from the roof and I rushed there, only to find him almost kneeling on the ground with a lesso around his neck,” she said.
She said the deceased boy was the child of a single mother who usually leaves the children alone, “and since I am always around, I keep an eye on them,” she added.
Ganda Assistant Chief Omar Mazoa said he was alerted and rushed to the scene. He later reported the matter to the police who went to the scene to commence investigations.
When journalists arrived, police officers were busy dusting the house for evidence while the deceased’s mother had not arrived from her job of doingthe laundry for people in Malindi Town.
The officers later took the boy’s body to Malindi Sub County Hospital Mortuary for post-mortem examination to establish the actual cause of death.
By Emmanuel Masha
