[ 2013-12-28 ]

University lecturer commits suicide in Kenya
KENYA: Police are investigating the circumstances
under which a university lecturer committed
suicide by jumping into a river.

Mrs Pamela Jaoko K’Ouko, 50, a senior lecturer
in Zoology at Maseno University, was yesterday
found dead at Ndanu Falls on River Yala in Gem
after a week-long search.

She went missing on Wednesday, December 18, but
the family reported the matter to police on
Saturday after they failed to trace her, said
Kisumu criminal investigations boss Henry Ndondi.

“We tracked her last contacts, which led us to
Yala Resort, where her car was parked. We found an
elaborate suicide note in it. She must have
planned to kill herself at Ndanu Falls, where she
was found dead,” he said.

Relatives said the mother of three did not come
back home after work on Wednesday and that her
phone was switched off and her car could not be
traced.

In the note that was found in a diary, the
lecturer said she had been struggling to keep her
strained marriage together and that she could not
cope with the pain of a failed marriage, Mr Ndondi
said.

Newspaper cutting

Frequent visits to a marriage counsellor had not
helped, the note, which was attached to a
newspaper cutting of a suicide story, said,
according to the police officer.

In the note, which had her husband’s phone
number with instructions that he be contacted in
case of anything, she had marked the dates she had
visited marriage counsellors in red and blue.
“God has given a husband, children and
investments. Changed Pamela,” she wrote in the
diary.

Her husband, Dr Evan K’Ouko, a radiologist and a
former lecturer at Maseno, however, denied the
couple had domestic problems, saying: “We did
not have any wrangles. Everything was normal.”

Police said Mrs K’Ouko was last seen driving
around Yala Town. She asked motorcyclists,
commonly known as boda bodas, where she could park
her car and they directed her to the nearby Yala
Resort.

She then hired one of them to take her to Ndanu
Falls on River Yala, saying she was going to
conduct research. That was the last time she was
seen alive.

The cyclist who took Mrs K’Ouko to the falls on
Friday led Dr K’Ouko and CID officers to the
exact spot where he had left her.

A thorough search of the area led them to the
lecturer’s decomposing body, which was spotted
by her uncle, Mr Eliud Owino. The cyclist said the
lecturer had asked him to come back for her after
40 minutes.

Last moments

“I saw her toes stretching out of the water and
I quickly concluded she was the one. It has been a
traumatising search. I was willing to go any depth
to find Mrs K’Ouko, who was my confidant,”
said a sobbing Mr Owino.

A shocked Dr K’Ouko recounted his last moments
with his wife, saying he had left late for work on
the day she disappeared after having breakfast
with her.

“We had our usual breakfast then I left for work
at 8.30am. I am told she left an hour later. In
the evening, I waited for her to come back but she
never returned,” he said.

The couple had three children — two in
university and one in high school.

A family friend, who requested anonymity, said the
lecturer had confided that she was facing
difficulties in her marriage.

She quoted her saying: “I cannot stand to see my
family break up. I’m watching it deteriorate and
I’m not happy. I sense doom in it.”

She added that the death came as a shock to her,
adding: “I did not, however, suspect that Pamela
would do that. She was such a strong lady.”

Mr Philip Ochieng’, the Chief Technologist in
the Zoology Department, said the lecturer was in a
jovial mood on the Wednesday she disappeared and
that he had overheard her saying: “Since the
departmental meeting has been postponed, I will
take some students’ scripts to mark at home.”

He said the lecturer could not stand to see
someone in distress and always had kind words for
families in trouble. He added, however, that
though the woman was sociable, she was an
“unpredictable introvert.”

“You would never read her steps, neither would
she over-expose deep issues surrounding her and
her family,” he said. “I saw her last open the
door to her office. The next thing I heard was
about her disappearance.”

Dr Paul Oyieng, another colleague, said she had
told them she was unwell and had asked them to
supervise the end of semester examinations for
her.

“She then turned up for the end of semester
meeting at the department. She looked vibrant but
a closer look seemed to suggest she had a
psychological problem. She was withdrawn,” he
said, adding that she had hinted at matrimonial
hardships she was going through to a female junior
colleague who went through a divorce recently.

Relatives said the zoologist was strong-willed and
calm.

“She was a strong woman and a counsellor to us.
We are wondering what drove her to her death,”
Mr Ben Onyoro, Mrs K’Ouko’s brother, said.

Source - Anita Chepkoech

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