NAIROBI COUNTY: Mystery surrounds an incident in which an Administration Police Officer committed suicide by blowing out his head using his official gun in his house in Nairobi's Utawala AP camp.
Officials said 42-year-old Edison Kipyegon is suspected to have taken his life three days before his lifeless body was found on his bed with a gunshot wound on his head on Monday.
“His body was found lying on the bed with a gunshot wound on his head. His Ceska pistol was beside him loaded with 14 rounds of ammunition," said Nairobi deputy police boss Moses Ombati.
He added they are not sure if he committed suicide.
Kipyegon's cell phone is said to have been offline since May 31. This forced his colleagues to break their way into his house two days later.
A bad smell had by then been emanating from the house, police said.
According to his colleagues, Kipyegon had shown signs of being withdrawn.
His body was later moved from the scene and taken to mortuary.
Ombati said the deceased was alone at the time of the incident.
"The case is under probe and we cannot say if he committed suicide or he was killed and the weapon placed besides his body. Let's wait for the investigations to end," said Ombati
In the recent past, police have been committing suicide in what is associated to social problems including poor welfare and deplorable working conditions.
In March this year, an AP shot and seriously injured his wife before committing suicide by blowing his head at their residence in South B.
The slain officer, Senior Sergeant attached to the Westlands Sub-County offices shot his wife five times before turning the firearm on himself over alleged missing Sh16, 000 rental cash he had given her.
Police authorities have been promising to start a counselling department as part of efforts to address such incidents.
Meanwhile, police are hunting down a six gunman who shot and badly injured a businessman in Mae Ridge in Runda.
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The six, according security guards forced their way by cutting the fence and breaking the window grill of the bedroom.
They then proceeded to upstairs bedroom where they shot Cosmas Musyoki on the stomach. They made away with two laptops.
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