A member of an elite squad operating at a police camp in Lamu committed suicide.
The body of the officer identified as Edwin Kuria was found lying in a pool of blood in a makeshift house he shared with his colleagues.
The deceased allegedly used an AK47 rifle assigned to one of his colleagues to end his life on Tuesday, November 8.
According to reports by his colleagues, the deceased officer who was part of the Special Operations Group based in Lamu used a burst of four bullets to end his life.
The officer fired four shots at the chin exiting at the top right side of the head.
The four cartridges were recovered with the rifle; however, the motive of the incident is yet to be known.
Officials reported that the deceased who was attached to Kotile Special Operations Group, reported to a different camp on Monday and was enroute to his workstation.
His body now lies at Mpeketoni Sub-County Hospital morgue awaiting autopsy.
Nonetheless, the rate of police officers committing suicide has increased, something which has been attributed to stress at work. At least three suicide cases involving police officers are recorded every month.
Moreover, to address the issue, the National Police Service Commission has launched counselling services and has established a unit to attend to this demanding situation.
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Likewise, the counselling department will be responsible for evaluating, designing, and leading an outreach programme that helps prevent mental health and substance abuse.
The programme will educate officers and families affected by mental health, substance abuse and trauma with ways of overcoming the problem.
Furthermore, the unit will also participate in the formulation of counselling policies, regulations, and strategies in conformity with the NPS reform agenda and participate in the implementation, interpretation and review of counselling services, policies, procedures, and systems.
Similarly, in 2019, police launched a programme labelled Muamko Mpya (Healing the Uniform Initiative) to give psychological support to officers.
