Shock and grief gripped Korongoi village in Bureti sub-county, Kericho after a 29-year-old man committed suicide by jumping into 20-ft well following domestic squabbles with his family.
Confirming the incident on Tuesday, Bureti Sub-County Police Commander Felician Nafula said the matter was reported to police by the area assistant chief at around 11.30 am after a villager, Joan Cherono, who had gone to fetch water saw a lifeless body floating inside the well.
The deceased, identified as Festus Kiprotich Bett, is survived by his wife and two children.
In an interview, Cherono said she had gone to collect water at around 7 am and was shocked to see the water in the well looking dirty with clothes floating on top.
“I then took a long stick and on jabbing the clothes, I realized there was a body and raised the alarm to alert other villagers,” she said.
The deceased, she said, operated a boda boda and also supplemented his income as a casual labourer at a nearby tea plantation.
A resident, Mzee Joshua Koech, said the man who lived some 300 metres from the well, had seemed stressed over the last week and had told fellow tea pickers that he would jump into a hole.
Mzee Koech said the man had had quarrels with his wife and father and apparently they had not taken his threats seriously.
When KNA visited the scene, scores of villagers, many without face masks watched in disbelief as security officers carried the body away in a police vehicle, with some murmuring that the deceased ought to have shared his problems instead of committing suicide.
Police took his body to Kapkatet Sub-County Hospital mortuary for autopsy.
