SUICIDE, NOT ME!

By Boaz Onyango

‘A third year electrical engineering student at Moi University commits suicide’ reports the 3rd Eye. The reader reads and then sighs absent-mindedly and then flips to other stories. The news spreads quickly, everybody talks about the sad incident and marvels but two days down the line the story is soon forgotten and fades into oblivion like the Nyayo milk. Nobody takes a second to remember or try to find out who the unfortunate student was! Moi University will, as a routine, send a eulogy to the family and then proceed to say that until his death he was a third year.

‘Suicide, not me!’ We often say this, thinking that we are immune to this menace; that it can only happen to others but not to us. It’s like road accident death tolls that remain statistical figures to us until we lose a limb and escape death by a whisker. Then we became part of that statistic and know that accidents are real and claim lives! 

The truth of the matter is that even those who end up killing themselves never contemplated that they would, one day, cut their lives short by hanging their necks on a rope. This evil act respects no boundary and we cannot afford to be indifferent because it claims lives of both the young and the old daily around the world. The educated and illiterate, the poor and not even the rich are spared! It’s like cancer.

Well we might be lucky to escape but our beloved brothers and sisters, friends, cousins and parents can all fall victim. Wouldn't it affect us? I don’t know the answer to that question but what I know is that funeral services are enjoyable if attended only in the neighbours’ homestead!

I knew the late Chester Katuva and I am sad to write this article in honour of his memory. He was my neighbour in C Houses before he went home. We would exchange greetings whenever we met in the corridor of the house. I didn't get to know him on a personal level but his quietness and humility could not be lost on any person who happened to meet him. Like most, he didn't look like the suicidal type. My heart bleeds for his family. We lost a potential engineer who could have helped to construct Konza or Tatu City in pursuance of vision 2030!

How many more lives shall we continue to lose? All of us are at a risk and we cannot afford to turn a blind eye and play ostrich politics of burying our heads in the sand while this monster continues to claim innocent lives every day. Like a small spark of fire normally causes a big inferno, and small things generate into big things, suicide starts like a joke, triggered by small things like a nasty comment from a close person like sweethearts or parents. This nasty comment then finds a place and settles in your mind! It then begins to prick your conscious and nag your thoughts, and then the devil comes uninvited and takes it from there. The incident hits headlines in media stations. It gets to be reported as breaking news!

Factors that trigger suicidal thoughts include, but not limited to, bad relationships or breakups. My advice to you is; go slow when it comes to love because there is danger in loving someone too much! Don’t neglect your brain. Let it also love because unlike the fragile heart it can’t be broken. Financial constraints, academic failures and slaps of life also rank high in causing suicides.

And when suicidal thoughts knock on your door never ignore them by saying ‘Suicide? Not me!’ Talk to someone you trust such as a friend or pastor. Never undermine the power of opening up. A problem shared is always half solved. Remember to also pray to keep the evil spirits at bay. And when the thoughts persist think about reasons why you should live and not reasons why you should die!