• His colleagues said Kuria who belonged to the Special Operations Group that is operating in Lamu used a burst of four bullets to end his life.
• At the scene, the lifeless body was found lying in a pool of blood in a house where officers used for shelter.
Image: THE STAR
Tragedy struck a police camp in Lamu when a member of an elite squad operating there died by suicide.
The body of Edwin Kuria was found in a makeshift house he and other colleagues stayed in.
He had apparently used an AK47 rifle assigned to his colleague to end his life on Tuesday, at about 4pm.
His colleagues said Kuria who belonged to the Special Operations Group that is based in Lamu used a burst of four bullets to end his life.
At the scene, the lifeless body was found lying in a pool of blood in a house where officers used for shelter.
It was established that the late fired four shots at the chin exiting at the top right side of the head. The four cartridges were recovered with the rifle.
The motive of the incident is yet to be known.
Officials say the late officer was attached to Kotile Special Operations Group and reported to a different camp on Monday and was enroute to his workstation.
The body was moved to Mpeketoni Sub-County Hospital morgue awaiting autopsy.
This is the latest suicide incident to happen, affecting the service.
Dozens of police officers have died as a result of suicide in a trend that is attributed to stress at work.
As part of efforts to address the trend, police authorities have launched counselling services and the National Police Service Commission has established a unit and staffed it to attend to their demanding situation.
The counselling unit will, among other things, evaluate, design and lead an outreach programme that helps prevent mental health and substance abuse.
At least three suicide cases involving police officers are recorded every month.
Further, it will assist clients and families affected by mental health, substance abuse and trauma with ways of overcoming the problem.
The unit will also participate in the formulation of counselling policies, regulations and strategies in conformity with the NPS reform agenda and participate in the implementation, interpretation and review of counselling services, policies, procedures and systems.
Over the years, a spike in deaths in the service has been linked to trauma. They include deaths by gun.
According to a Kenyatta University research, the major factor contributing to suicide and murder among officers in Kenya is work-related trauma.
The study found that police are generally on the receiving end of all community problems.
They are expected to maintain law and order in very difficult situations, besides putting their lives at risk.
It further emphasised that police officers are often in touch with extremely painful issues in the community such as murder and rape.
In 2019, police launched a new programme - Muamko Mpya (Healing the Uniform Initiative) – to give psychological support to officers.
“The ultimate goal of the initiative is to provide officers with knowledge, tools and a framework to assist them to support each other while handling traumatic situations,” police said.