Nyagwaka village residents in Nyamira county are stunned after a third person from the same family died by suicide.
Nyamira South subcounty police commander Moses Kirong’ said John Bahati, 35, allegedly died by suicide last Saturday night. The body was discovered on Sunday morning.
He told KNA he received a phone call from Timi assistant chief Stanley Gisemba on Sunday morning, informing him of the incident.
“When the assistant chief informed me about the incident, I mobilised my officers and we went to the scene, where we found the deceased hanging from a cypress tree outside his house with a metal wire round his neck,” Kirong said.
“He further revealed that the deceased had undergone several counselling sessions by family members, after observing that that he was stressed.”
Gisemba said Bahati had been working in Nairobi and came home earlier this month looking stressed and threatened suicide on several occasions.
The administrator said at some point Bahati attempted suicide but was luckily rescued by family members who counselled him.
“When family members realised that Bahati was depressed and was executing life threatening decisions, they started counselling him to enable him to recover from his life depressors or ‘evil spirit’ driving him to such irrational decisions,” the assistant chief said.
According to his younger brother, Bahati left on Saturday evening to an unknown destination. He said they thought he had taken a walk and would come back to his house within their homestead and sleep.
The brother said they were shocked to find Bahati hanging from a cyprus tree outside his house.
Gisemba said the villagers are still astonished and worried that the act could be instigated by some ‘evil spirits’ which they are suggesting be exorcised through cultural rituals.
“Bahati’s father also committed suicide by hanging himself from the same tree which Bahati hang himself while they were young. His late brother succumbed to some poisonous concoction he drank four years ago,” he said.
The remains of Bahati were taken to Nyamira Referral Hospital mortuary awaiting a postmortem.
