‘He jumped as they laughed’: The cruel mockery behind men’s rising suicide cases
Generally, men commit suicide more than four times as often as women, but women attempt suicide about three times as often as men. For young adults aged 15 to 19, five times as many males as females commit suicide.
What you need to know:
- Kenyan men face silent mental health crisis; suicide rates rise as stigma and cultural pressures block support.
- Amid rising male suicides, calls grow for destigmatisation, mental health reforms, and male-friendly support systems.
On a normal day in April 2025, residents of Chaka town in Nyeri County gathered below a six-storey building to watch a man teeter on the edge of a balcony.
Instead of pleading with him to step back, some jeered, trivialising the distress of the man as he contemplated suicide. A few pulled out their phones to record. Moments later, he leapt to his death.
His story, though horrifying in its tragic end, is not isolated. Between 2021 and 2025, media reports across Kenya have documented a disturbing rise in men’s suicides, many of them involving young men, fathers, and even boys as young as 12.
As Kenya marks June as Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, the stories emerging from media reports reveal fathers, sons, and husbands fighting invisible battles in a society that refuses to permit them to cry out. Counties such as Kiambu, Murang’a, Migori, Nyeri, Kisii, and Homa Bay have become hotspots for this silent epidemic.
According to statistics previously released by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in 2021, Kiambu recorded the highest number of suicide deaths at 109, followed by Murang’a (37), Kisii (25), Kakamega (24), and Nyeri (21). Though sobering, these figures, lacking a gender breakdown, only hint at the deeper crisis. For instance, in Kamahuha, Murang’a County, nine suicides were reported within 10 months, seven men and two women, all aged 12–29.
Their deaths, reported in October 2023 by the Kenya News Agency, were linked to failed relationships, religious indoctrination, and unknown reasons. In one heartbreaking case, a 12-year-old boy died by suicide with no warning signs. In another, a young man left behind a note blaming a televangelist who had promised to change his life in exchange for over Sh118,000—a promise never fulfilled.
In Migori County, the cases are just as grim. On July 5, 2023, a 45-year-old man in Uriri took his life after his wife allegedly refused to cook chicken. Earlier that year, another man from Bware village died by suicide after beating his daughter to death.
In Homa Bay in April 2025, a police officer, described by family as struggling with marital and job-related stress, was found dead, another life lost to silent despair. And in Kiambu in January 2023, a 55-year-old man died by suicide after battling with cancer.
Horrifying accounts
Despite these painful accounts, the 2025 Economic Survey lists zero suicides for four consecutive years – 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. “Men are important in society, but they also face challenges that drive them into committing suicide,” said Fredrick Nyagah, the national founder and chairperson of Men Engage Kenya Network, in a previous interview.
He added that many men suffer in silence because of stigma and cultural expectations. “Men with erectile dysfunction, low libido, or temporary impotence suffer in silence,” he noted. “They will check into hospital and claim that a friend sent them to ask for help, yet they are the ones in need. We need service stations that are male-friendly.”
Globally, men are at higher risk of suicide than women. According to the World Health Organization, 12.6 men per 100,000 die by suicide, compared to 5.4 women. Kenya’s 2020 Economic Survey also reflected this trend: 138 men died by suicide that year compared to 36 women. The previous year, 160 men had taken their own lives.
Notably, the 2018 survey showed more women (155) than men (147) died by suicide. Suicide and attempted suicide has since been decriminalised in Kenya. In January 2025, the High Court declared Section 226 of the Kenyan Penal Code unconstitutional. The provision was used to punish individuals for “attempting suicide” with up to two years in prison.
Meanwhile, during the National Gender Sector Working Group meeting in Nairobi on June 5, 2025, Anne Wang’ombe, the Principal Secretary in the State Department of Gender and Affirmative Action, urged men to seek support and called on society to stop stigmatising those who ask for help.
