Missing journalist Bogonko Bosire’s younger brother dies by suicide
Missing blogger Bogonko Bosire. His younger brother died by suicide after showing signs of depression from last year.
The family of missing journalist Bogonko Bosire has suffered another blow after his younger brother died by suicide.
For five days, doctors fought to save Joshua Bosire’s life, before he breathed his last on Saturday, January 15.
His sister, Winnie Bosire, said her younger brother had shown signs of depression from last year, and efforts to talk to him proved futile.
“He even came to my house on January 1. We had a very long, healthy conversation over his previous utterances that he wanted to die, and that he did not feel like he would make it through another year,” she told the Nation.
The depression, Ms Bosire explained, stemmed from their brother Bogonko’s disappearance in September 2013, which devastated everyone in the family, with their parents being the most affected. Their health deteriorated.
The parents were dependent on their children, and Joshua, who previously did small jobs in Nairobi, agreed to move back home in Kuresoi North to take care of them.
"My mother has kept asking what wrong she could have possibly done to anger God so much that she has now lost two sons. We are really worried because of her health; we do not know what might happen to her with all this stress," said Ms Bosire.
According to the family, the stress arising from Bogonko’s disappearance, together with the increased responsibility of taking care of his old parents, took a toll on Joshua, who resorted to excessively drinking alcohol.
On Sunday, January 10, Joshua left home for his usual drinking spot. He drank a lot and went back home, where he reportedly told his mother that he would die that night. He then reportedly ingested a toxic substance and collapsed before his mother.
His death, said his sister, was a setback to the family that was yet to get closure after Bogonko’s disappearance.
She has sent a plea to Kenyans to assist the family meet the burial expenses for Joshua.
“We are really having it rough. My parents’ medications cost a lot of money and we have to raise the money for the funeral. I am also stretched financially ever since my husband died and left me with three children,” she said.
Joshua’s death comes nine years after Bogonko, a journalist-turned-blogger, vanished without a trace, shortly after the terror attack at Westgate mall, Nairobi, on September 21, 2013.
Prior to his disappearance, Bogonko had publicly feared for his life due to a story that he was pursuing for his controversial Jackal News blog.
