• It was not immediately established why the police driver took the drastic action.
• The bullet burst his head. His body was moved to the mortuary pending an autopsy.
A junior police officer Wednesday died by suicide after shooting himself in the head at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters in Nairobi.
His colleagues said he locked himself inside his car and shot himself in the head with his pistol at the parking lot. He died instantly.
It was not immediately established why the police driver took the drastic action.
His colleagues were alerted by the sound of the bullet from the parking lot at the operations section and on checking, they found him dead.
The bullet burst his head. His body was moved to the mortuary pending an autopsy.
Senior officers were in the office at the time of the incident. There was panic over the tragedy.
This is the latest such incident to happen in the service. Last week, a senior officer died by suicide in his house in Utawala area, Nairobi.
Superintendent Ezra Ouma shot himself in his house on the afternoon of Thursday October, 5 moments after he had called his friend who is also a police officer and told her he would die by suicide.
Ouma was in charge of Special Operations Bureau (SOB) at Kayole police division.
He was due for retirement in two years, his colleagues said.
Police who visited the scene said Ouma had also shot a neighbour in the left leg after he tried to stop him from his mission.
Dozens of police officers have died by suicide in a trend that is attributed to stress at work.
As part of efforts to address the trend, police authorities have launched counselling services and the National Police Service Commission has established a unit and staffed it to attend to their demanding situation.
The counselling unit will, among other things, evaluate, design and lead an outreach programme that helps prevent mental health and substance abuse.
At least three suicide cases involving police officers are recorded every month.
Officials say police are generally on the receiving end of all community problems.
They are expected to maintain law and order in very difficult situations, besides putting their lives at risk.
Over the years, a spike in deaths in the service has been linked to trauma.