Senior aviation officer jumps off Mombasa air control tower as suicide rates of govt officials hit alarming levels

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Aerodrome Control Officer II (ATC 69) jumped from the Air traffic control tower at the Moi International Airport, Mombasa on Friday with Kenya Civil Aviation Authority(KCAA) confirming the incident as suicide.

According to a press statement by KCAA, they are yet to find out the reason why the officer decided to take away his life.

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A probe on the matter is ongoing, the statement further reveals.

“The family of the deceased was informed and we are working closely with relevant authorities to investigate the incident,” reads part of the statement. 

“The board and management stand with all the Air Trafic Control Officers during this time, having lost a valuable member of the team,” it further read.

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To avoid such eventualities from happening again, KCAA says it will from time to time, offer counselling services to its staff.

Here’s the full statement:

Although the majority of people who have depression do not die by suicide, having major depression does increase suicide risk compared to people without depression. The risk of death by suicide may, in part, be related to the severity of the depression.

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The number of suicides reported in Kenya rose by 58 per cent between 2008 and 2017 to reach 421, official data reveal.

Although the number of suicide cases has been rising since 2008, the data show the lowest incidents were recorded in 2010 at 75 cases.

The report also shows that more men are likely to commit suicide than women. Out of the 421 suicide cases in 2017, 330 involved men.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that close to 800,000 people commit suicide every year, which means one person every 40 seconds. Many more attempt suicide, WHO adds.

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The World Population Review ranks Kenya at position 114 among 175 countries with the highest suicide rate.

The world Population Review in its survey states that Kenya’s suicide rate is at least 6.5 suicides per 100,000 people, a figure echoed by World Health Organisation.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth in the 15-29 age bracket.


Besides depression, other risk factors include access to firearms, physical or sexual abuse, unemployment, strained relationships, imprisonment, chronic physical illness, financial difficulties, loneliness and exposure to the suicidal behaviour of others.

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BeFriends organisation’s advice on people with suicidal thoughts is that, you don’t need to act on your thoughts right now. The option of taking your own life isn’t going to go away.

You can make this decision tomorrow, next week or next month if you still want to. When you are feeling so bad that you want to take your own life, the thought of just getting through the next few days seem unbearable.

Try to focus on just getting through today and not the rest of your life. It may feel that the way you usually cope  with these feelings is weaker today. You may not feel able to imagine getting through this.  

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