Graduate commits suicide after Facebook users encouraged him to do so

What would push a marketing graduate to lock himself in a room, mix poison concoction and drink. And even when that didn’t work, hang himself with his belt?

All, three weeks before he turned 28.

Owen Maina Macharia shocked his close friends and family members after committing suicide in Mtwapa, Kilifi county on Saturday (2/02/19).

According to the Sqoop, Owen posted a suicidal message on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/macharia.o.maina) (15/01/2019). His message was largely ignored and some of the people online made fun of him.

Other social media users encouraged him to go ahead and kill himself.

“Solution to all problems is death. No man…no problems,” the late Owen posted.

The digs and insults did not prevent him as he replied to every message sent to him.

To one netizen who had written “siujiue basi tukuzike,” Owen replied by warning him not to attend his funeral.

The distressed Owen consumed rat and rat poison and hanged himself using his belt.

The Sqoop reports that before his death, Owen used a phone belonging to a security guard’s at the hotel to send a farewell message to his family.

A cousin to the late Owen, Daniel Kabii, told Nairobi News that he (Owen) had asked for an off day from his employer on January 28.

“When we received the reports of him missing, that is when we saw the post he had written on Facebook and we started searching for him. His house in Mwihoko (near Githurai off Thika Road) was locked and upon breaking in we found his phone and packed clothes. The neighbours said he left and they did not know where he was headed to,” Kabii said.

Owen was buried on Friday (8/02/19) at his parents rural home in Mukurweini, Nyeri County.

Statistics indicate, every year close to 800,000 people take their own lives and many others also attempt to commit suicide worldwide.

Suicide is a tragedy that affects families, communities and entire countries and has long-lasting effects on the people left behind.

This tragedy not only affects the poor but also the rich and it’s a global phenomenon that cannot be ignored.