Locals of Shisese village, Ikolomani Constituency in Kakamega county have woken up to shocking news of a form three student hanging himself to death in his bedroom.
Residents have raised fear following the incident given that the number of suicide cases have been on the rise with the internet being blamed for the increase.
According to the deceased grandmother Sebenzia Shivachi, her 20-year-old grandson Gabriel Shivachi left them in the sitting room and proceeded to his room to sleep and was shocked to find his body dangling on the rooftop of a house.
“Have been living with him and was to do his KCSE exam but he opted to write to the exam council KNEC deferring his exam to the next session and he was mostly seen browsing on his smartphone,” said the grandmother.
She added that the boy was calm and never shared his woes with anybody as he was a partial orphan.
“We were sitting with him in the shopping centre and he was eating chapati. He never shared with me if he had any problem. He was known to be a silent man,” added a neighbour who was last seen with him.
Social media has also been linked to the increase in suicide cases with locals claiming the advent of cheap smartphones has created a huge social problem in the area.
“Most of our children are on freelance mode with the advent of social media being a source of the increase in cases of suicide. Recently I found my grandson googling on how to get out of this world,” added one elder in the area.
This comes even as locals complain of incidents of orphans taking their lives in the area as a result of depression.