A Garissa cleric has appealed for urgent counselling of police officers to tame the rise in suicide in the past few days.
Speaking to the press in Garissa town on Tuesday, Rev David Matolo of the Redeemed Gospel Church said the rate at which police officers are taking their lives ‘should concern every Kenyan’.
Matolo was reacting to yesterday’s incident in which a police officer attached to the Garissa police station shot himself dead.
This was hours after a prison warder turned his gun on himself after killing a cop in a suspected ‘love triangle’ in Mwea.
On Friday, a police officer attached to the office of the Deputy President committed suicide in Ngeria, Uasin Gishu county. David Too jumped into a dam that had formed in a quarry, authorities confirmed.
His family said he jumped into the water at 9am in what they said could be job-related stress.
On Saturday night in Nairobi’s Kamukunji police station, a police officer shot a female colleague dead and injured another during an argument before he fled the station.
He was later hunted down and is said to have shot himself dead after he was cornered.
In the Garissa incident, the police officer, identified as Peter Kiprono, shot himself dead using a G3 rifle.
Area subcounty police commander confirmed the incident but declined to divulge more information.
Matolo said it is time religious leaders should also help with counselling officers before the situation gets out of hand.
“Officers are human, and they encounter challenges in the course of their duty. Sometimes if they are not counselled from time to time, they are bound to explode and the result is what we are witnessing today,” Matolo said.
“These are our sons, daughters, fathers and mothers. They have a socio-economic role to play in our midst other than keeping law and order.”
