• The first incident happened on Friday evening when the 19-year-old son of businessman Robert Kiriago picked his father's gun and shot himself.
• The second incident happened Sunday when 13-year-old son of Northeastern deputy police chief Patrick King'ori Macharia shot himself using his father's pistol.
Image: The Star
Two teenagers allegedly shot themselves dead using their fathers' guns in separate incidents in Nairobi.
The victims, aged 19 and 13, died in their parents’ houses in Gigiri and Ruai areas respectively, police said.
Parents of both victims said their children never exhibited any behaviour to suggest they were depressed or intended to commit suicide.
The first incident happened on Friday evening when the 19-year-old son of businessman Robert Kiriago picked his father's gun and shot himself.
The teenager’s body was found in their servant's quarter bedroom long after neighbours heard a gunshot coming from the area.
He took his father's Ceska pistol from the safe, locked himself in the bedroom and shot himself in the head while seated.
Police who broke into the room to access the scene said he shot himself in the head from the left side even though he was right-handed.
The motive is yet to be known. Kiriago is a licensed gun holder. The father and other family members were away at the time of the incident.
The mother of the victim said she left him in the house and did not see any curious behaviour to show he was disturbed.
The body was moved to the mortuary pending autopsy and probe. The pistol was taken away by police for tests and analysis.
The second incident happened Sunday when 13-year-old son of Northeastern deputy police chief Patrick King'ori Macharia died after shooting himself using his father's pistol.
He took a Jericho pistol from a table at his father's Ruai home, locked himself in his bedroom and shot himself.
Macharia had placed the gun on the table and went for a short call as he prepared to leave for work.
When he came back he found it missing and inquired from the wife where it was.
Macharia told police it was then that he heard a gunshot coming from his son's bedroom.
He said he broke down the door to his son's bedroom and found he had shot himself in the left side of the head. The bullet had exited from the right.
His body lay on the bed. The motive is yet to be known, police said.
Detectives who arrived at the scene moved the body to the mortuary, pending a postmortem.
The gun in question was seized, along with 29 rounds of ammunition and one spent cartridge, police said.
These are the latest cases of suicide to be reported in the country amid a worrying trend.
According to a report by the Ministry of Health, one in every 10 Kenyans suffers from a mental disorder.
The 2020 Taskforce on Mental Health called for more funding for mental health facilities and recommended that “mental illness should be declared a national emergency of epidemic proportions, to prioritise mental health as a priority public health and socioeconomic agenda.”
Edited by A.N