13-year-old boy hangs himself after being denied his Sh100 gambling win

Class Four pupil kills himself over Sh100 bet

A 13-year-old on Sunday evening committed suicide by hanging himself inside his room in Chumani village, Kilifi North Sub-County.

This is a second incident after a 9-year-old boy hanged himself after losing a gamble.

The deceased Evans Kadenge was a class four pupils at Kararacha Primary School.

It is alleged that the late Kadenge hanged himself after he lost a fight with his 15-year-old uncle over a gambling card game.

The uncle is alleged to have denied the deceased Sh100 which he had won in a gamble three days earlier.

Chumani location Chief Maitha Thoya said the two had gambled three days ago with a promise that whoever wins would get Sh100. The deceased after playing won but his uncle refused to part with the cash.

“On Sunday evening, the deceased became infuriated by his uncle’s delay to give him the cash. They fought but the victim was overpowered and dashed to his house full of tempers,” he said

He added: Inside the house, the deceased sent her little sister out to bring some water. The young sister returned only to find the boy hanging. He had hanged himself using a bed sheet.

Confirming the incident, Kilifi OCPD Alexander Makau said they have started an investigation over the death.

 Makau said they have already summoned the uncle of the deceased for interrogation.

 “We shall question him so that he can shed more light on what happened, and leading to the death of the boy. His statement will assist with our investigations because we strongly believe he has enough information concerning that death,” he said.

He said the body of the deceased is at the Kilifi County Hospital Mortuary.

Kilifi North Deputy County Commissioner Selina Maitha also confirmed the incident and said investigations are underway and that they will immediately hold a public participation and community sensitization Barazas following the increase in gambling and other illegal games in the area.

“We shall carry out barazas beginning this week to sensitize our people on these new dangers. Our team will also carry out crackdown on illegal gambling that is quickly spreading its roots in the community to eradicate taking root to make sure that they are eradicated out of the county,” she Maitha.

She added: This is too much since we are losing young boys over gambling and we believe there is something more which needs to be unearthed over that death.

The DCC's sentiments comes after the community in Konjora Location raised alarm over high number of women engaging in gambling

The incident comes only a month after a nine-year-old boy also committed suicide after losing a gamble in Mtondia.

The late Silas Kazungu, then a class two pupil at Mtondia Primary School hanged himself in their bedroom after he failed to contend his anger after loss.

The boy was gambling using cashewnuts, in a game that whoever won would take all the cashewnuts the other boys had.

The boy who won all the gambles lost in the last round to other players which meant that his cashewnuts were to be taken away.

This prompted him to leave the game crying in anger only for him to kill himself some minutes later.