A-19-year-old girl in Lamu on Friday, Jun 19, committed suicide after she allegedly found out her boyfriend was cheating on her.
According to the police, the girl hanged herself inside the family kitchen at their home in Faza town, Lamu East on Friday.
“We are still investigating but we understand the young lady had found out her boyfriend had another girl. She didn’t leave any note. We also understand she quarreled with some girls shortly before she took her life and we are looking into that too,” Lamu East OCPD Emmanuel Okanda said explaining why he believed the girl killed herself over a love triangle.
Data by the World Health Organisation shows that bearly 800,000 people commit suicide every year. This further translates to one suicide every 40 seconds.
In Kenya, WHO says the number of suicides reported in rose by 58 per cent between 2008 and 2017 to reach 421.
The data further reveals that more men are likely to commit suicide than women. Out of the 421 suicide cases in 2017, 330 involved men.
Okanda urged teenagers to avoid straining themselves in relationships and taking reckless actions, no matter how painful the situation.
Exactly a year ago, another teenager committed suicide in a church at Kiambogo village in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
Dennis Ngugi, 18, hanged himself inside Mothaiti Presbyterian Church of East Africa, only leaving behind a torn suicide note.
The teenage girl’s body was taken to the Faza Subcounty hospital for a postmortem.
