A middle-aged woman recently diagnosed with cancer committed suicide on Sunday in Kasarani estate in Naivasha.
Shocked residents found the 38-year-old identified as Purity Muthoni hanging on a rope in her sister’s house.
A neighbour said she had told friends that she did not want to undergo the pain other cancer victims go through.
Emotions ran high as her kin and friends tried to come to terms with the incident which came a month after her diagnosis.
The mother of two had been undergoing treatment in different hospitals before she was diagnosed with the disease that has killed hundreds of Kenyans.
A neighbour, Ann Nyambura, said that Muthoni had been living in Olkalau where she developed a growth in one of her breasts.
“She started undergoing treatment in various hospitals and was misdiagnosed with other ailments until the final blow was delivered to her at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi,” she said.
She said that the victim had been living with her sister who worked in one of the flower farms.
Naivasha OCPD Samuel Waweru said that the body had been collected and taken to Naivasha mortuary.
“According to the sister, when Muthoni received the breast cancer diagnosis she went into depression which might have pushed her into committing suicide,” he said.
Over the weekend, the country sent off Bomet Governor Joyce Laboso and Kibra MP Ken Okoth who both succumbed to cancer.
Earlier, former Naivasha MP John Mututho had attributed the increase in cases of cancer to eating of non-biodegradable components in the food.
Mututho warned that the lives of millions of Kenyans mainly those living in urban centres were in great danger due to dairy products that had high levels of chemical residue.
He questioned the origin of the evergreen vegetables being sold in the streets noting that the majority of them had been grown using sewerage.
Mututho noted that food imports mainly from the Far East should be scrutinized keenly as they were a source of heavy metals that had adverse effects on health.
“The regulatory bodies mainly from the ministries of Health and Agriculture should wake up from their slumber and stop the importation and sale of these products,” he said.
(edited by O. Owino)
