• He says many young people were killing themselves or were found dead under unclear circumstances; he called the rate alarming. noting
• Says many youth misusing social media by exposing themselves to strange people and cultures, thus ending up destroying their lives.
Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii has raised the alarm over increasing suicide cases and misuse of social media by youth.
He said many young people were killing themselves or had been found dead under unclear circumstances. The rate of such deaths is shocking, he said.
Bii said many youths are misusing social media by exposing themselves to strange people and cultures, thereby destroying their lives.
He is calling on parents, teachers and leaders to help take charge of moulding the youth instead of leaving them to be influenced through social media.
“We have so many cases of children committing suicide or dying under unclear circumstances and it's time we act as a society to understand what is going on and intervene to save lives of our youth,” Bii said.
The county chief said many parents had abandoned their roles and allowed youth to overuse or misuse mobile phones leading to them engaging in harmful social connections.
“Some parents even allow their children to be on phone most of the time yet the impact is devastating because some of the children even end up linking with evil people,”Bii said.
Bii who was with his deputy John Barorot said the county was currently facing a youth crisis.
“Some of the children remain in their rooms all day engaging on social media until they are even reminded to take meals yet parents don’t question such behaviour. As a parent, you must seek to know what the child is doing on phone all day,” Bii said.
His administration, he said would engage with other stakeholders to deal with the challenges affecting the lives of many youth.
The governor said many youth. despite not lacking basic needs, had failed to understand the purpose of life and are easily influenced to engage in immorality and crime because of what they get from social media.
Bii said the county would work with other partners to create job opportunities for youth so that they are not left idle to engage in immorality and crime.
The governor also said there was extensive abuse of drugs and alcohol among the youth.
“As a county government together with other stakeholders we will engage in extensive sensitisation of our youth as we seek ways to keep them busy in gainful activities,” Bii said.
(Edited by V. Graham)