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School girl commits suicide after killing son

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Shock and disbelief gripped Kapkiamo village in Baringo North on Wednesday morning after a 19-year-old girl committed suicide by hanging outside their home after killing her four-month old baby.            

An avocado tree outside the homestead of Mzee Kandie that was supposed to bear fruit aided the killing of a promising girl that topped her class in the nearby Kapkiamo Secondary School.            

Outside the home, neighbours speak in low tones glimpsing at the blue mosquito net that broke the girl’s windpipe leading to her death.            

According to the mother Rael Kandie, the girl could not clearly explain the whereabouts of her little boy, Roy Koech who she had gone out with on Monday early morning only to return by herself a few minutes later.

“I immediately asked her where the child was but she told me not to worry that her boy had been taken by his father who had promised to take care of her as she continued with her studies,” said her mother.

She further narrated that the girl was seen by a neighbour crying together with her baby near the gate and holding a jembe, the neighblour alerted the family but before they could step out Lucy Kimuge had come back.

The mother now believes that too much interrogation about the child may have led her daughter to commit suicide.

“On that Tuesday morning she took her tea and dressed up to go to school, I escorted her to know he she had given out the baby to its father without telling us but she insisted that the baby was safe and sound in Fluorspar area, which is more than 50 kilometres away,” added the mother amid sobs.

But the events of the day which included the news that the area chief was looking for her inquiring on the child’s whereabouts may have sounded a death sentence to the girl.

She ate her supper and did house chores as normal before telling her mother to wake her up at 5 am as she had an early lesson to catch in school.

Speaking in their humble house which is a mix of mabati, mud and timber walled, the mother said she hesitated waking up the girl at the agreed time but her father took the burden alerted the girl.

“She even borrowed my rubber shoes to wear to school, but she was never to go to school as moments later we found her hanging outside the house,” added the mother of seven.

They reported to the chief who called the police and upon their arrival they searched the compound and found the body of the child in a shallow grave behind their house.

The girl it seems had relocated the body from the initial location after suspecting that it would be easily identified from the information that she was seen there with a jembe on Tuesday morning.

“The pressure on her to reveal where the child was and the fact that the area chief was involved became too much for my daughter to bear,” said the mother saying that the bright girl had secured bursary to finish her secondary school education.

Confirming the incident Baringo North Sub County Commander Mr. Fredrick Odinga they collected the two bodies and transferred them to the Baringo County Referral Hospital Mogue awaiting post mortem to ascertain the cause of death.

He also revealed that officers from the DCIO’s office had commenced investigations on the matter.

“We suspect that the girl may have decided to kill the baby so that she may continue with her studies which had stopped after she gave birth and upon realizing that she could no longer bear the pressure she took her life,” said the officer.

While acknowledging that cases of suicide was on the rise in the area, Mr. Odinga called on area residents to seek alternative methods of solving problems other than taking their own lives.

The incidence comes barely a month after another man committed suicide in the area after reports that her wife was seeing another man.

And as the night draws near in the bushy village the residents will go to bed not knowing what bedevils their village to warrant such many cases of deaths by suicide.

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