462 deaths: The grim reality of suicide cases

Members and partners of The mental health Champion initiative, Kenya in 8km suicide awareness and prevention walk in Nairobi on Sept 27, 2025. [Jonah Onyango, Standard] On the evening of August 21, 2025, Mercy (name concealed for privacy) left her home in Pipeline, Nairobi, carrying a quiet but devastating decision. She went with her two children towards Mlolongo in Machakos County, leaving behind a note that hinted at despair. Hours later, tragedy struck. One child died, and Mercy and her younger son were rushed to the hospital after a suicide attempt that shook the community. On the same day, a Form Three student in Kiambu was found dead after a long struggle with mental illness, while in Narok, a young couple's home was shattered by violence and loss after a man, 28, killed his 24-year-old wife and hanged himself. Days later, another man, 30, in the same Narok County ended his life following a domestic dispute. These incidents, spread across counties and age groups, reflect a deepening national crisis of the quiet epidemic of suicide. Sunday Standard's analysis of police records shows 462 people died by suicide between June and August this year, an average of five lives lost every day. Behind these numbers are faces and families, each left grappling with sudden silence where a voice used to be. Of the 462 cases, 386 were men and 76 were women, representing 83.5 and 16.5 per cent respectively. The age group most affected was 26-30 years old, with 79 deaths reported in just three months. Children, too, are not spared. More than 50 minors died by suicide during the same period, five of them below the age of 10. The geographic spread of cases emphasises how widespread the crisis is. Machakos recorded the highest number (33), followed by Kisii (28) and Nairobi (25) within the three months. Other counties that recorded relatively high numbers were Homa Bay, Makueni and Nakuru with 21 cases each. In Embu, 20 people died by suicide within the period. Tana River County reported one case of suicide in the three months, while West Pokot, Lamu and Garissa recorded two cases each. Mandera, Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir and Isiolo recorded none. Seven elderly Kenyans aged between 80 and 100 years ended their lives, some driven by the unbearable pain of terminal illnesses or financial despair. Suicide in Kenya is no longer a series of isolated tragedies; it is a crisis unfolding daily, cutting across age, gender, and county borders. According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), the common causes of suicide include relationship breakdown, financial struggles, mental health conditions such as depression and bipolar disorder, and the heavy stigma that surrounds seeking help for people struggling with mental health. According to the World Health Organisation, suicide claims 720,000 lives globally each year, translating to one death every 40 seconds. In Kenya, estimates suggest around 4,895 people die by suicide annually, though experts believe the real figure is higher due to underreporting. Of the total, men account for 3,834 suicide deaths. Dr Mercy Karanja, Director of Mental Health at MoH and the President of the Kenya Psychiatrist Association, warned that criminalisation of attempted suicide has only worsened the crisis. "As long as suicide and attempted suicide remain criminalised, we cannot collect accurate data or make the right investments to save lives," she said. "We need to decriminalise suicide so that we can save lives. It will end the stigma, we can improve access to care and we can also have the right data that will guide our interventions," Dr Karanja added. Dr Linnet Ongeri, head of mental health division at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, noted that current suicide figures are drawn from fragmented records in police stations, mortuaries, hospitals and the civil registry. Dr Ongeri stated that plans are underway to establish a national suicide registry to consolidate this information. WHO lists suicide as the fourth leading cause of death worldwide and data shows 14 million cases of attempted suicide are recorded every year. Its 2021 data states that up to 90 per cent of people who die by suicide have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at the time of death. According to Ongeri, suicide cases in Africa remain underreported and poorly understood, with stigma, criminalisation and weak surveillance systems being the major contributing factors. "It is very hard to plan and invest in interventions when we don't even have correct baseline information. So whatever rates we usually put out are estimates," said Ongeri. The plan is to be able to link records from civil registry, mortuaries, health facilities, and police stations to form a comprehensive suicide registry. "For us to successfully set up a national suicide registry we have to destigmatise this aspect of suicide attempts. That way we will collect accurate data and when we put out an intervention, we have baseline surveillance data to assess their effectiveness." A Mental Health Taskforce led by seasoned psychiatrist Dr Frank Njenga said in its report that despite the heavy burden of mental ill health, 75 per cent of Kenyans are not able to access care. "Access to mental health services encompasses the ability to use good infrastructure, good services, adequate human resource, required health products, equipment and technologies," reads the report. The team observed that only National Referral Mental Hospital, Mathari Hospital-established in 1910-offers specialised care, but most of the infrastructure is old and dilapidated, and it lacks basic infrastructure to deliver modern evidence-informed psychiatric care. They recommended to the Ministry of Health to rebuild the hospital, set aside resources for training, recruitment and deployment of adequate multidisciplinary mental health service providers to close the gap in human resources per population ratio. Currently, there are only 150 psychiatry specialists in Kenya. Prof Lukoye Atwoli, a psychiatrist and Aga Khan University's Dean of the Medical College, East Africa, said significant progress has been made to increase Mathari Hospital's budget, improving its infrastructure and making it a semi-autonomous government agency. "Mathari has since been transformed into a parastatal, and it has its own budget, and several infrastructure upgrades are ongoing, including the construction and modernization of new facilities within the hospital," said Atwoli, who chairs the hospital's board of directors. He further pointed out that the government had allocated land in Ngong for the construction of a new facility, although the budget for its development is still pending. Notably, the taskforce report highlighted that Kenya is among 28 per cent of WHO member states that lack separate budgets for mental health. Of Kenya's total budget, mental health allocation accounts for less than one per cent. Consequently, people with mental health issues have to pay out-of-pocket for treatment as most insurance companies do not cover mental health care. There has been a sustained fight by mental health fraternity to decriminalize attempted suicide by repealing Section 226 of the Penal Code. Early this year, the High Court made a landmark judgment that declared the Section unconstitutional as it hinders victims of mental health from accessing quality healthcare. Atwoli described the court decision as "a great moment not for just for the mental health community, but for everyone in Kenya". "Nobody is immune to experiencing suicidal thoughts at some point in their life. You want to be able to seek help without fear of criminalisation," said Atwoli. The focus is now on the National Assembly to repeal the section of the Penal Code that criminalises attempted suicide. The law provides for a jail term of two years or a fine, or both, for anyone who attempts suicide. Atwoli said the law creates an environment of fear and stigma that discourages many from seeking help. "Declaring it unconstitutional and no longer a crime opens up the opportunity for people with suicidal ideation to seek help and not be discriminated against by insurers and other care providers," he added. Beyond legal hurdles, societal stigma around suicide has been another deeply entrenched issue. Atwoli highlighted how people with suicidal thoughts and their families face exclusion, further exacerbating their suffering. "When somebody has these thoughts, even before they talk about it, they have self-stigma because the community treats people who attempt suicide badly. "And even people who die by suicide, their bodies and ceremonies are treated very badly in order to just really make them look like bad people," said Atwoli. He said mental health disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia can exacerbate suicidal tendencies. "The human brain is wired to protect us from harm, including self-inflicted injury. But when someone goes past this instinct when they attempt suicide, they have reached a level of distress that has overpowered the brain's protective mechanisms," he explained. According to Atwoli, many people who attempt suicide have already sought medical attention for unrelated symptoms but were never asked about their mental health. He advocated for a routine screening for suicidal thoughts in healthcare settings to ensure those at risk are identified and provided with the necessary care. "We need a system where people are routinely screened for mental health issues, just like any other medical condition," said the psychiatrist. Ultimately, the psychiatrist stated that, decriminalising suicide attempts will not encourage people to kill themselves but will create a safer space for those suffering to seek support. "There is evidence in the countries that have decriminalised suicide that there is no increase in suicide rates. But in the countries that have criminal legislation like ours, suicide rates are high or they have continued to rise despite having that legislation in place," he added.

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