Police suicides raise questions

In what has become a too familiar story, an Administration Police officer attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself last week at Uhuru Camp in Nairobi.

Edwin Odhiambo is reported to have arrived back from an assignment at the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency and was notified of a possible redeployment.

He then went to the latrine and moments later, his colleagues heard gunshots and rushed there, finding him on the ground in a pool of blood.

Beside him was a G3 rifle and eight spent cartridges.

The officer was later taken to Kenyatta National Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment, with serious bullet wounds in his head and abdomen.

This is just the latest of a series of police suicides reported in various parts of the country.

These cases of suicide have raised concerns about the welfare of officers in the police service, prompting the Interior ministry to restructure its guidance and counselling unit.

Police spokesman Masoud Mwinyi said these cases are of great concern to the police service and already a plan is under way to provide regular counselling services to officers.

“We are working on giving our officers a supporting arm through counselling even as we recognise that they too are human and susceptible to frailties such as emotions and pressures,” he said.

The reorganisation of the counselling section was triggered by the attempted suicide of Mr Odhiambo.

'SHARE EXPERIENCES'

One of the measures adopted is to ensure counsellors visit different police stations and camps and talk to officers.

“Where need be, we will engage external counselling services to allow officers to openly engage with counsellors and even share experiences that can ease the challenges they encounter in the line of duty,” stated Mwinyi.

According to the officers Nation.co.ke spoke to, most suicide cases result from too much pressure at work, denying officers a chance to rest, bosses who deploy officers unfairly, favouring some by allocating them duties that allow them to earn an extra coin, and officers’ personal issues with their spouses.

The most dramatic suicide was that of CID officer Julius Otieno, who is believed to have killed his wife before shooting himself at the couple’s home at Kamiti Corner in Kasarani, Nairobi.

The 44-year-old officer, who was attached to a CID office in Taita Taveta, was reported to have come home at around midnight and it was only in the morning that the couple’s bodies were found in their bedroom.

In another case from June this year, an Administration Police officer attached to Utawala Camp in Nairobi and identified as Edison Kipyegon was found dead in his house.

The 42-year-old officer had switched off his mobile phone and it was not until days later that police discovered his body. They suspected that he might have committed suicide.

Another officer attached to the Central Police Line, Elisha Kelly, committed suicide in April and was found dead by his son, who alleged that his parents had been quarrelling the night before the incident.

And in March, an Administration Police officer, Evans Odhiambo posted this chilling message on his Facebook page: “I must do something stupid today. Liwe Liwalo. I am fed up.”

The 36-year-old officer, based at Nairobi’s Westlands AP Camp, arrived at his house in South B’s Mariakani estate and quarrelled with his wife, Janet Atieno — a fellow AP officer with whom he had five children — over a missing Sh16,000 he had given her to pay the house rent for March.

Moments later, the couple’s neighbours heard screams from the woman as shots were fired in the house. The shooting left the husband dead and his wife critically injured.

'DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS'

These deaths have raised questions about the welfare of officers serving in the police service and have prompted a search for ways to prevent these incidents.

One of the officers who lost a colleague this year to suicide told Nation.co.ke that the deplorable working conditions in the police service often cause depression, resulting in suicides.

“When an officer is mistreated by his immediate boss and is even denied the right to 45 annual leave days, he or she gets worked up and feels unappreciated,” said the officer.

In one suicide case in Garissa, the officer left a note stating that he could not bear to see a case he was handling crumble and the failure blamed on him.

“He had participated in an operation to nab illegal immigrants and after the operation ended, some of the aliens were released and he was blamed and booked for disciplinary actions,” said the officer.

The police counsellors who advise depressed officers are all based at police headquarters and it is the officers’ immediate bosses in police stations who should alert counsellors about possible depression cases.

“We never get to see them and when we manage to get the contacts of any of them, they refer us to our immediate bosses and tell us to talk to the depressed officer as friends,” stated another officer.

BODYGUARDS

In Nairobi’s Uhuru Camp, which has reported several suicide incidents, the officers often chose to kill themselves due to perceived tribalism and nepotism, which they blamed when they were not appointed as security officials for VIPs.

“There is a stipend that an officer gets for the duty of being a bodyguard and so when the available chance is given to another officer unfairly, they feel unwanted and even develop a strong hatred for their bosses and favoured colleagues,” said another officer.

Officers recommend that several senior officers be trained on guidance and counselling to ensure every station has at least one trained officer to handle cases of depression.

“There is also the need for a helpline to be developed where colleagues can call and recommend that attention be given to a depressed officer as it is often easier for us to confide in counsellors that we do not work with, depending on the nature of the issue,” said the officer.

Mr Mwinyi, the police spokesman, while recognising the importance of a helpline for officers, advised officers to use the available channels to reach out to the chaplaincy unit.

“We also want to encourage junior officers to report when they are targeted unfairly by their immediate bosses due to personal differences, and we will investigate the complaints to ascertain that they are not malicious without causing a conflict between the officer and the boss,” said Mr Mwinyi.

The police service has been undergoing reforms for some time now. The service hopes to be able to address issues related to the relationship between officers and their immediate bosses, along with finding the correct and fair disciplinary measures that ought to be taken against bosses who mistreat their juniors.

“There is a need for the commanders also to keep meeting the officers under them every two weeks to provide information on what needs to be done in different situations at work while also addressing the concerns of the officers,” said Mr Mwinyi.

Even as officers who attempted but failed to commit suicide recover from their ordeals, Mr Mwinyi said, the service hopes to establish a fair and transparent duty-allocation system and eliminate the old ways of bosses victimising officers viewed as habitual offenders.

Story by Evelyne Musambi