Cruel bosses, stress blamed for suicides in Kenya police force

Fifty police officers in Kenya kill themselves every year, highlighting the shocking levels of stress and unhappiness among the people charged with protecting the country’s population.

The figures emerged at the weekend following the suicide of a policewoman at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport last week. She locked herself in the toilet and shot herself with her service pistol leaving a note laden with despair.

Gaudencia Wausi is the latest statistic on suicides in the police force after she locked herself in a toilet and shot herself with her service pistol. Her last Facebook post linked her death to frustration. (PHOTO: COURTESY)

She is only the latest statistic on suicides in the police force. In July alone, there were at least nine reported suicides or police on police killings. Over the same period, eight were gunned down by criminals, including the six shot down by a colleague turned Al-Shabaab sympathiser. Meaning that in that particular month the chances of a policeman getting shot to death by a criminal were almost equal to the chances of them killing themselves, of being shot by a junior officer.

Turned the lock

When policewoman Gaudencia Wausi walked into the toilet, no one knew she had no intention of walking out. Once she turned the lock behind her, she sat on the toilet seat, removed her standard issue Jericho pistol from her hip and shot herself in the head. Before the mother of one shot herself, Gaudencia had left a trail of telling messages on her social media accounts which, with hindsight, seemed to be pointing to an unstable individual.

“Life is so difficult when you live in a world where everyone is planning evil against you. What happens when you can’t hold it anymore and no more strength to support the few people who love and cherish you? You are left with no other option other than..... So help me God,” she posted on Facebook.

A 2014 study on the causes of occupational stress amongst police officers published in the Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences fingers high stress levels as the major cause of the suicides. The findings from the study involving 105 police constables and four Officers Commanding Police Station from Kisumu show that a majority of the respondents (37 per cent) were experiencing moderate to high level of occupational stress. Up to 14.3 per cent of the respondents were experiencing low level stress while 11.4 per cent were experiencing very high levels of stress.

Force insiders say although more than 50 deaths are reported every year officially, the number could be twice this as many more suicides, particularly those not involving firearms go unreported.

But why are the country’s protectors turning on themselves? Why are those charged with preserving life at all cost turning on themselves in alarmingly frequent suicides?

“Police men and women are exposed to so much stress and they have no training on how to deal with the stress,” psychologist and lecturer Jane Ngatia told The Standard on Sunday. She says the stress can be from high workloads, family problems and the everyday tension of being in a high risk environment.

“Policemen are trained to see enemies in everyone. They just can’t talk to anyone about their problems. They can’t talk to those around them, neither can they talk to those with them because they have the same problems,” she says.

On July 26, Constable Judith Galland locked herself up in her house in Homa Bay. Then, patiently and meticulously, she doused her two children in petrol. Sprinkled it throughout the house, on herself and finally struck a match that lit a fire that consumed everything in its wake. The three were burnt beyond recognition.

“The thing that the public should understand is that these suicides are not unique to policemen. People are killing themselves every day for various reasons. It is a problem of the society, not for the police alone,” Police Spokesperson Charles Owino said.

However, testimonies of serving police officers who spoke to The Standard on Sunday on condition of anonymity say most of the reported suicides of the men and women in uniform are work-related. And their counsellors agree.

A Nairobi-based female officer from the General Service Unit told The Standard on Sunday of her frustrations with life. Since the completion of her training in 2012, she has never been deployed to the field because her boss treats her like his property.

“He blocks all promotions or redeployments that come my way. He wants to see me near him. I cannot report him to anyone since he is the authority,” the female officer said. Her job cost her a fiancé because she got too close to her boss. Her going back to school for a degree made little significance in her professional life.

“Now my life has stagnated. All my peers have families. They have advanced in careers but I am stuck in this one place. I have tried to bribe my way out but he is always in the way. Once I tried to tell him off and ignore his overtures and was put on a three-month suspension. I have dependents. This job is all I have,” she said.

A former classmate who was in a situation similar to hers killed herself two years ago. “People had started calling her names at the station. Her family thought she was out protecting the country yet she was kept at the station for other purposes. She couldn’t live with it anymore.”

Harassment from bosses

This is not an isolated case. A former instructor told us that the issue of GSU male bosses misusing female recruits has led to the reduction of the recruitment of female officers in the service. Because, according to the former instructor ‘even if they are recruited they never go to the field.’

Officers also talked of unmet expectations. The intrinsic motivation to join the force is quickly killed during training where every instructor ridicules you and tells you you will amount to nothing. Although this might seem like some training banter, the officers we spoke to say this quickly turns into reality when after training you realise hard work, integrity and honesty are seldom rewarded.

“It hits you fast that you might be stuck in a vicious cycle for some time. For some the only option out of this is death. Hoping that your family might get some financial assistance when you die,” another officer who has served for 8 years in the same position told The Standard on Sunday. “Those who have come to us for help and counselling talk about corruption within the ranks, nepotism, abuse and favouritism as some of the causes for the suicides,” Loice Okello, a Nairobi- based counsellor who has provided psychosocial support to the uniformed forces said.

“Some narrate tales of colleagues who killed themselves after being denied promotions or whose transfers were rejected,” she says. For instance, one is only supposed to serve in hardship areas for a period of 20 months. “Many of them have served in these regions for much longer,” Okello says, a fact that the police spokesperson says cannot be a basis for suicide. “Why are we not getting suicide reports from those serving in far-flung areas?” he askes. Owino too has a point. On July 29, a Kisumu-based traffic police officer Constable Alfred Ndalanu shot himself at his house. At the time, his colleagues say Ndalanu ended his life because he fared poorly in the recently-concluded police vetting exercise during which he was put to task over his numerous financial transactions. The World Health Organisation estimates there to be 30 suicides per 100,000 people. In a population of 42million people, this translates to 12,600 suicides every year or 34 deaths per day.

Ultimately and ironically, the job meant to protect life forces them to take their own.