Nyeri County Commissioner Ronald Mwiwawi./PHOTO:KNA
On average, a life is lost daily in Nyeri
through suicide.
Nyeri County
administrator Ronald Mwiwawi says hardly a day passes without his office receiving
report of a suicide case.
Shockingly, almost all those taking their lives happen to be
men.
The administrator
says his office has now decided to take over the crisis as a matter of urgency
through a team of professionals who are leading an onslaught against the vice
in areas like Kieni East, Kieni West, and Mukurwe-ini, which are hardly affected by the challenge.
“Almost every day, I am losing a human being, and even the way
our men are killing themselves is just by hanging outside their homestead. I
have gone public, telling men to visit my office. Men are walking into my office
and explaining their sad stories. A man walks to my office and tells me he has even bought a rope with which to hang himself. It’s sad,” said Mwiwawi
while chairing a Service Delivery meeting for heads of department on Wednesday.
The commissioner is
now calling on all parties to take action in addressing the menace before it escalates or becomes an existential threat to future
generations.
He also noted that some of the issues pushing persons on the
edge are matters that can be solved simply by taking the time to listen to the problems
of such victims.
He explained that the
things that are making men take their lives may seem small, but to them they are
big.
In February this year, Mwiwawi had called for concerted
efforts from all to help stem soaring suicide cases in Nyeri.
He warned that unless something urgent was done to address
the root cause of why people were taking their lives in the county, the problem
might spiral into a social catastrophe.
He also noted that
the majority of those who were taking their lives happened to be of the male
gender, and who form the most critical segment in the stability of any society.
“For the three months I have been here, suicide cases have been very high. Suicide has become a thorny issue until I asked those people with mental health issues to walk into my office and have a dialogue and understand why we are taking our lives. Let us talk to one another so that we can reduce the cases of suicide,” said the Commissioner while speaking during the rollout out of the countywide Social Health Authority (SHA)registration exercise at the Nyeri Town Health Centre
During last year’s 61st Jamhuri Celebrations at the Nyeri
Kamukunji grounds, Mwiwawi directed all deputy commissioners, chiefs, and their
assistants to organize frequent public barazas in order to address rising suicide
cases in the county.
He said he was horrified at the growing number of people who
were ending their lives in the county, describing the trend as alarming.
The administrator
said it was unacceptable for people to continue taking their lives at such an
alarming rate while those in authority watch from the sidelines.
The commissioner has also raised an issue regarding the
increasing reports of frequent fires in the county, which he termed puzzling.
He says his office has been receiving reports of houses that
have been gutted by fire almost on a daily basis, with no conclusive report
in regard to the cause.
Efforts to unearth the underlying cause of the frequent
blazes have also not been forthcoming.
“Every day, we are getting reports that a semi-permanent
house has been burned. It scares me. We have seen what happened in Nairobi's
Kibra, Mathare, and Gikomba market, which was a high-magnitude fire incident. But
here it is a daily occurrence. I have tasked my Deputy Commissioners to explain
why we are having these fires every day, but it has remained a puzzle,” he
reported.
Meanwhile, the
administrator has challenged heads of departments to forge a united front while
implementing government programs to the public.
He said as representatives of the Government, officers need
to present facts as they are to the people while showcasing what the State is
doing in bringing services closer to them.
Mwiwawi, while reminding the officers that the public’s
assessment of the government depends on how critical information is packaged
and delivered to people, also took time to advise the officers against falling
prey to the trap of political leaders whose time is time-bound by the cycle of
elections.
“When you are seated in your office, you are representing
the Cabinet Secretary, and this (meeting) is more of a Cabinet sitting, but at
the county level, because what is decided at the Cabinet level is what we are
implementing here. If Kenyans are not appreciating the government, it means we
are not communicating effectively and we are not doing our work rightfully,”
emphasized the commissioner.
He also urged the departmental heads to work as a team and be aware of what each department is undertaking, stating that this is the only way gaps, hits, and misses can be addressed. He stated that no single government department can operate alone since all civil servants are serving the same people at the end of the day, regardless of the area of specialty.
“Anytime the government faces a backlash, that one is pointing at us. There is something that we are not doing. We should also differentiate between the government and political leadership," he said.
"For us civil servants, political leadership will come and go, but you shall remain there as the engine for continuity purposes and the government. We are the people who form the backbone of the government and the country."
