On Saturday the IEBC denied Solomon Gichira
accreditation to contest the presidential election. He then broke a window in Anniversary Towers and allegedly tried to jump out and kill himself.
Yesterday he was with attempted suicide and faces a potential jail term of two years.
This is inhumane. Gichira needs psychiatric treatment, not criminal prosecution.
The harsh law criminalising suicide is a colonial hangover. It was not written by an independent Kenyan government.
The law serves no useful purpose. If you want to kill yourself, it will not make any difference if someone tells you it is a criminal offence.
In Kenya the suicide rate is 10.8 per 100,000 people per year, compared to a global average of 12. In many countries suicide is legal, in some illegal. There is no clear correlation that criminalising suicide is a deterrent.
Let us review this cruel colonial law. It is time to remove it from the penal code.
Quote of the day; "I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself." - American jazz musician Sun Ra died on May 30, 1993
