15-year-old boy commits suicide in Bomet

The body of a 15 – year-old Standard Eight pupil was found hanging on an avocado tree at his grandparents` home in Chesoen area in Bomet Central Sub-county on Sunday night.

Confirming the incident, Bomet County Police Commander Ms. Naomi Ichami said the deceased; Emmanuel Kipkorir left his parents` home which is a few meters away to go to his grandparents` house only for his body to be found hanging on a rope on an avocado tree outside his grandparents` house at 10:30 pm on Sunday.

It’s not clear what drove the teenager to end his life but investigations are underway into this unfortunate incident.

The deceased was set to sit for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams at Chesoen primary school in March this year.

The body of the deceased has been moved to Longisa Referral Hospital mortuary pending postmortem and further investigations into the incident.

This is coming  few days after  a 33 – year-old man committed suicide in Kamogoso village in Chesoen area on Friday afternoon after a  row with his wife over money that was a proceed from the sale of a cow.

Earlier, a 16- year-old student committed suicide by hanging herself with a bed sheet at Kaboson Girls` Secondary School in Chepalungu Sub-county Friday morning.  Cases of suicide are on increase in the country at alarming rate causing concern among health stakeholders.

Since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, cases of suicide have been rising as many people, both young and old continue to find themselves into depression and other mental illnesses due to the economic hardship and other challenges that have been brought about by the pandemic.

Four months into the pandemic, a mental health task force was constituted by President Uhuru Kenyatta which recommended in their report that mental health be declared a national disaster.

The Kenya Mental Health Taskforce headed by renown psychiatrist Dr. Frank Njenga report revealed that mental illness accounts for 13 per cent of the entire disease burden in Kenya.

According to the World Health Organization (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.

In 2017, a WHO report ranked Kenya as the sixth African country and at position 114th globally among 175 countries with the highest levels of depression with at least 1.9 million diagnosed Kenyans suffering from depression.