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A jilted boda boda rider in Eshibinga area, Kakamega County, had to be wrestled amid taunts and sneers to abandon mission to kill himself out of rage.
The man, identified as Junior Aswani, attempted to jump off a several-metres-high bridge along River Yala after he was jilted in love by a woman whose school fees he has allegedly been paying.
Aswani is said to have busted his lover nibbling away at the forbidden fruit served to her by her new lover. But when he tried to confront her, decrying the betrayal, she told him she had moved on and he should also do the same.
Passersby at the bridge noticed him crying as he threatened to jump into the river. When asked what had happened, he, amid hysterical sobs, narrated to them the incident, claiming that the heartbreak was too painful and he saw no need to live.
Attempts to take him away from the bridge had initially proved futile after he resisted, clinging on to the rails while threatening to jump.
“He was crying, and telling those who tried to pull him away to sweet talk him to stop the suicidal thoughts that he just wanted to go and be with the Lord. He claimed there was nothing else worth living for, if the woman he had banked all his hopes on had betrayed him,” a local who witnessed the dramatic incident said.
Interesting, not everyone had kind words for him, especially when he insisted that it was his life he wanted to take while urging them to leave him alone.
One local in particular who seemed to care less told him off, daring him to jump off if he was man enough. Calling him a desperate attention-seeker, the no nonsense local is said to have told him that if he really wanted to die, it was unnecessary for him to cause a scene and waste passersby time.
On suicide watch
“We also have feelings and they get hurt all the time. If anything, you are not the first man to be dumped! Many of us have also been used and dumped by women and we dealt with it,” the local is quoted as having scoffed at him, urging the locals to stop wasting their time and beat him back to his senses.
“If you really wanted to kill yourself, you should have taken rat poison, not playing games with us,” he further taunted him, much to the shock and amusement of many other curious observers, including some of his fellow boda boda riders. His colleagues are said to have forcefully pulled him off the rails and taken him to a nearby shopping centre where they prevailed upon him not to kill himself.
Apparently, the local woman in question is a graduate from a college in nearby Kakamega Town, but had since changed her loyalty a few months back.
When locals reached her in a bid to reconcile them, she had no kind words for the poor man. She claimed that for the two years they were together, much as the man partly contributed towards her school fees, she always paid him back in kind. Thus, she claimed, owed him nothing and he had no right to claim he was betrayed.
The rider has currently been placed on suicide watch by his colleagues and locals.
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