Two months ago, a woman in Murang’a County stabbed to death two of her children and left the third one in critical condition before surrendering herself to the police. Reports indicated she committed the heinous act after a quarrel with her husband. Earlier in the year, a police officer in Homa Bay County murdered his two children and a nephew before committing suicide. The officer reportedly had a long-running marital conflict with his wife. The two incidents are part of an unfolding pattern of domestic violence cases where children end up as collateral victims, caught in the crossfire of love…
Author: By Sheila Van de Graaph
Every single day in Kenya, four people die by suicide. Most of the victims are young people aged between 15 and 29 years, according to Health ministry and World Health Organisation reports. It is a sad state of affairs. However, recent news that Colorado in the United States has recorded its lowest youth suicide cases in 17 years gives hope that suicide can indeed be prevented. Colorado’s inspiring story has been attributed to multi-tier school support programmes, rollout of ubiquitous crisis lines, peer-led programmes, adequate mental health funding, and implementation of data-informed strategies. Colorado’s first win came from normalising mental…
Girls in Loreng village in Letea Ward, Turkana West celebrating after receiving sanitary towels from Plan International Kenya during World Menstrual Hygiene Day in Turkana. [Mike Ekutan, Standard] Whenever Kiambu Woman Representative Anne Wamuratha talks about menstrual health, she always remembers how she first felt when Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamantangi launched sanitary towel drives across the county. “Why didn’t he call the women? This is women’s business…,” she recalls, adding that other women leaders in the county had the same sentiments. It was only later that she realised that the governor was leading the fight against period stigma from the…