Nine out of ten suicide cases in Central Kenya are those of male victims, regional police boss Patrick Lumumba has said.
Lumumba said since March this year, the region has had a total of 93 reported suicide cases out of which 84 are men while nine are women.
This translates to 90.3 per cent for men and 10 per cent for women.
Lumumba said out of the five counties in Central region, Kirinyaga and Kiambu are leading with 25 cases each followed by Nyeri at 17, Murang’a 16 and Nyandarua 9.
“From what we have discovered is that most of these suicide cases arise from domestic quarrels in families while some are due to depression on the part of the victim,” he told journalists on Thursday.
Lumumba said disputes around family inheritance such as land and unexpected pregnancies are other reasons people take their lives.
He said when school going children get unexpected pregnancies, some are chased away by their parents while others drop out of school. For fear of such consequences, some commit suicide.
“We also have had cases of exam failures ending up committing suicide because if a teenager had hopes of pursuing further studies and then fail in their exams such that they cannot continue with their education, they tend to be frustrated,” he said.
Young people, he said, commit suicide after parents refuse to give them property.
However, he said, there are some which occur due to poverty where the victim feels that they cannot make ends meet in life.
The police boss said some elderly people have been committing suicide to avoid burdening their children with their care.
“Sometimes when the elderly commit suicide, they live suicide notes saying that they do not want to bother their children,” he said.
“Maybe they may have been ailing for long and the children have taken care of them for long and so they tend to commit suicide.”
But he said there are other cases which remain mysterious as victims leave no suicide notes nor any communication to relatives.
Most take their own lives by hanging themselves from trees, inside their houses, dive into water and drown, taking poison and stabbing.
He said on Wednesday one person committed suicide by stabbing himself in front of his colleagues after threatening to do so.
The youngest reported suicide case was an 11-year-old while the oldest was 70 years old.
