Police investigate 14 – year old boy suicide act

KAGERA: POLICE in Kagera Region are investigating an incident involving a 14-year-old boy who allegedly committed suicide in Muleba District.

According to Kagera Regional Police Commander Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police (SACP), Blasius Chatanda, the deceased (name withheld) is a resident of Muleba District’s Buleza village.

He explained that the incident occurred on Tuesday morning where the 14-year-old boy allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself on a coffee tree branch using a sisal rope.

Expounding, SACP Chatanda further said that between January 2023 and April, last year about 20 people, including three females allegedly committed suicide in Karagwe District for unknown reasons.

He explained that on April 29th, last year at Chanika Ward, a male identified as Jackson Rwamuyonga (38), allegedly committed suicide by swallowing a pesticide.

Investigations revealed that there was an argument between the late Rwamuyonga and his wife (name withheld) regarding the sale of their pet pig.

According to reports, Rwamuyonga wanted to sell the animal at 150,000/- while his wife demanded 200,000/- .

For yet unknown reasons, Rwamuyonga hurriedly locked himself inside a room and swallowed a pesticide which killed him instantly,” he said.

SACP Chatanda warned citizens with similar problems to avoid taking the law into their own hands, instead they should seek advice from Social Welfare Officers who have knowledge on matrimonial issues.

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“We cannot allow people to continue committing suicide at such rate. Serious measures must be taken including continued education and counseling on marriage relations,” he said.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Home Affairs indicate that in the past five years about 3,420 people killed themselves in the country, 70 per cent of them being males.

The figures show that 2,464 men and 897 women took their lives in the period under review. According to the figures, an average 684 people in the past five years committed suicide each year.

Most suicide cases reported to police involve youth in the age group of 15 to 25, in which mostly school girls attempted to cut their lives short because of social problems and family wrangles.

Attempted suicide, commonly referred to as para- suicide or deliberate self-harm, is defined as a non- fatal act in which an individual deliberately initiates a non-habitual behavior that, without interventions from others, will cause self-harm, or deliberately ingests a substance in excess of the prescribed or generally recognised therapeutic dosage and which is aimed at realising changes which the subject desires via the actual or expected physical consequences.

According to Tanzanian law, attempted suicide is a punishable offense.

Para-suicide is a complex social behaviour with rich meanings and inter- actions that are deeply rooted in culturally patterned forms of thought and emotional behaviour. Suicide attempts help to evaluate the capacity of various social systems to procure happiness and security for their members.

The behavior may begin in adolescence and may persist for decades and result in great personal and social morbidity.

Although in a few cases it has been underrated as a distinct syndrome of low lethality and repetitive, direct self-destructive behaviour, para-suicide is one of the strongest predictors of suicide and should be treated seriously.

It is one of the commonest emergencies in hospital practice and it is thought to be 10-20 times higher than rates for suicide.

Many traditional African cultures consider life as sacred, and suicidal behavior is not only frowned upon but also morally condemned.

However, rapid social changes in these societies, especially in urban populations, are leading to moral instability and the loss of familiar norms which inhibit suicidal behaviour.