Following the reopening of schools, Alliance Girls High School student Serena Nyokabi committed suicide.
The young girl had been reportedly undergoing treatment over her mental struggles and had been seeing a Psychiatrist over the same since the year 2019. The psychiatrist had been dealing with her anxiety disorder.
A Facebook account with the name Peter Kodhek Amunga posted a lengthy statement revealing the sad incident. The statement was as shown below.
SAD NEW AS A STUDENT AT ALLIANCE GIRLS HIGH COMMITS SUICIDE DAYS BEFORE SCHOOL REOPENING
By Amunga Akhanyalabandu.
It is deep sorrow that we announce the untimely death of Serena Nyokabi of A.G.H.S
Serena had been undergoing treatment and seeing a Psychiatrist and therapist since 2019 for anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, she took her life on Thursday evening 08.10.21. Their home is in Naivasha.
May the God of Grace strengthen the family and Alliance Girls fraternity at this difficult time of loss of one of their own.
Again, we must point out that the mental health is now a big issue. As our children report back to school, take time to feel them, to listen to them and to encourage them. Pressure across the country has taken toll not only to adults but our children in schools.
Prayers for Serena her family and A.G.H.S fraternity. RIP girl.
This adds to the notable rise of cases of Kenyan youths choosing to end their lives, laying bare the need for psychiatric attention to address anxiety disorders that many youths are experiencing.
Among the anxiety disorders that people experience include obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks.
“Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders” a 2017 report released by the World Health Organization (WHO), Kenyan was ranked number five among the countries from Africa that have the highest number of cases of depression.
This lays bare the need for the government to set up community-based psychiatric aids to tackle the elephant in the room at the grassroots level.