Girl kills self for scoring 145 marks

BY PETER MUTAI

Grief and shock engulfed Ketitui village in Kericho District after a 14-year-old girl who scored 145 marks in this year’s KCPE committed suicide.BY PETER MUTAI

Mercy Chebet who was a former student of Ketitui Primary in Ainamoi Constituency hanged herself Thursday with a lesso inside their house.

Villagers said the girl went to the school at around 11pm accompanied by a friend to collect her results but was shocked to learn she had performed dismally.

"The girl went with her mother in the morning to pick tea at their family farm before going to the school to check her results and came back dejected," said a Mr David Langat.

He said the girl informed her mother she had performed dismally and jokingly told her she was going to commit suicide.

She left her mother at the farm picking tea and went home where she hanged herself.

Telenat Location Chief John Too regretted the incident and said it was sad the girl took her life because of poor performance.

The administrator reported that the girl’s mother was shocked to find the lifeless body of her daughter dangling from the roof when went back home at 1pm.

"Neighbours who responded to the woman’s cry used a panga to cut the lesso before lowering the body of the teenager only to find that she had already died," he said.

Proper counselling

Villagers called police who arrived soon thereafter but the family decided to keep the body at home for burial today.

The chief urged parents to counsel their children who performed dismally in KCPE examinations to avert such incidents.

This comes as most parts of the country broke into jubilations as friends and relatives celebrated performance of their loved ones.

The best boy and girl nationally scored 442 marks out of 500. The position was shared between the two — Martin Irungu from Moi Educational Centre and Christine Muthoni Kagiri of Tendercare Academy.