Police officer commits suicide in Nyeri
A police officer attached to the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit (CIPU) is the latest to commit suicide.
Mr Patrice Messo Akinyi, a Police Constable, shot himself on the left chin and the bullet exited through the mouth using an AK47 rifle. The incident happened at his house in Nyeri County.
A police report seen by Nairobi News reveals the officer shot himself twice as officers who rushed to the scene recovered two spent cartridges.
“It was reported by Mr Jackson Muthinja, the Deputy Sub County (CIPU) that Mr Akinyi, a Kikuyu male adult aged 37, had committed suicide at unknown time in his residence within Kimanthi Estate,” the report filed at Nyeri Police Station read in part.
The first respondents who rushed to the scene after hearing the gunshots broke into the house and found Mr Akinyi in a crimsoned room lying in a supine position with a gunshot wound around the left chin exiting to the mouth.
Preliminary investigations reveal that the officer had been deployed at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) stores within King’ong’o where he worked for one week.
However, the officer went missing on Wednesday afternoon which prompted his colleagues to check at his known residential place.
Mr Akinyi committed suicide just one month after he returned from a rehabilitation center located in Kikuyu where he had been referred to by his bosses due to heavy drinking.
“The scene was visited by police bosses in Nyeri county, processed, and the body taken to Nyeri County Referral Hospital Mortuary,” the report further revealed.
The deceased did not leave behind any suicide note.
Cases of police officers committing suicide have been on the increase in the recent past.
Last week, two police officers attached to two different police stations within the Coastal region committed suicide in separate incidents.
In the first incident, a police officer identified as Mr Dennis Kamau Ndung’u attached to Nyali Police Station committed suicide by shooting himself with a firearm while he was inside his room.
In a police report seen by Nairobi News, Mr Kamau ended his life at an unknown time until his lifeless body was found by colleagues.
“The officer had committed suicide by shooting himself with a firearm while in his room at an unknown time. The scene was visited by senior officers attached to the police station and it was established that the deceased shot himself from the right side of the head and bullet exited on the left side using his official firearm,” the report read in part.
The officer picked the firearm, a Glock19 pistol of serial number GBZ767 which had 12 rounds of 9mm ammunition, three spent cartridges and a shattered Samsung mobile phone “were recovered at the scene and kept as exhibits.”
The scene was documented and the body was picked and taken to Pandya Hospital Morgue for preservation awaiting a postmortem that will take place later this week.
In the second incident, another officer identified as Mr David Koech Kurgat committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.
A police report seen by this reporter revealed that two officers identified as Ramadhan Ali and Kiprono Koech were patrolling at Bandari Sacco wall when they found the body of the deceased lying in a pool of blood.
It has emerged that police officers are exposed to traumatic calls for service on almost a daily basis and this includes;abuse, domestic violence, homicides and car crashes.
At times they are all of a sudden sent to keep law and order in areas where they brutally engage with rioters. Repeated exposure to these stressors and events has in most cases been associated with developmental or critical conditions which include; somatization, burnout, depression and anxiety.