Filicide cases on the rise,Murder convicts blame strained marriages!
Filicide is the killing of a child by a parent-
Two year old Jibril Mansur laid to rest at the Muslim Cemetery in Eldoret Monday Evening.He was stabbed to death by her Mother.
By Kelvin Kiprop
From the beginning of the year, there have been several cases of attempted or actual filicide recorded by the media.
Filicide is the killing of a child by a parent.
The latest incident is in Eldoret , Uasin Gishu county where Christabel Chepkogei, a 26- year Old mother stabbed a 2-year old son to death and critically injured her daughter who succumbed hours later at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Chepkogei, who blames the incident on her husband for loving one child and neglecting the other also blames her own mother and siblings for disowning her. She had also attempted take her own life before she was arrested by the Police.
Eldoret:Two year Old Jibril Mansur who was stabbed to death by her mother finally buried!
Overall, 34 cases of infanticide were reported in 2018, an increase from 31 in 2014, according to Kenya’s 2019 Economic Survey. Women are the biggest offenders with 25 cases of filicides committed in 2014. In 2018, the number of male offenders increased to 11, from six in 2014, while that of females dropped to 23. Studies and experts point to psychological, sociological and economic reasons why mothers and fathers turn into “abnormal’ beings.
What would prompt a mother to do such a thing?
Contrary, experts say, the culprit in such deaths is often a loving mother in the throes of mental illness, motivated by love and attachment to her children.
In a case study by Cheryl L. Meyer, a psychology professor at Wright State University who studies mothers who kill their children recalled interviewing one woman who had also tried to kill herself. The mother told her that killing her kids felt logical because they were an extension of herself, as if they were a limb.
The defining factor for women who killed their children was a lack of social support and mental illness. People who already suffer from a mental illness such as bipolar disorder, or who have had postpartum depression in the past, are at greater risk.
Postpartum depression is a complex mix of physical, emotional and behavioral change that happens in some women after giving birth.
Child birth is trauma!10% of young mothers suffering from postpartum depression
Symptoms of depression include persistent sadness, barely getting out of bed, crying all the time, and difficulties in eating, sleeping, and concentration.
Murder convicts blame strained marriages, manipulation by lovers keen to eliminate a child born out of wedlock, poverty and evil spirits for killing their own children in a bid to escape the hangman’s noose, according to a review of court proceedings.
Psychologists warn that gruesome killings in families by parents turning against their children is an ultimate expression of emotional disorder.
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