This archive report was first published on 17 July 2021.
On October 15, 2018, a tragic incident occurred at Utawala Estate in Nairobi, where a two-year-old girl was stabbed to death by her father, who was suffering from hallucinations due to his failure to take his medication as required.
The father, identified as BKM, had stopped taking his medication, which led to his mental illness. He then found his daughter SMK in bed with her mother and took the action that would change their lives forever.
Justice Jessie Lesiit, in her ruling, stated that the father's actions were a direct consequence of his decision to stop taking his medication. She further declined to give BKM a non-custodial sentence, arguing that he needed to be in jail to learn what he had done was wrong.
Despite BKM's plea to the court to spare him a prison sentence due to his mental state, the judge ruled that he would serve three years in jail. This incident highlights the worrying trend of mental illness in the country, which has even caught the attention of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who formed a committee to look into the matter.
