Rest In Peace Deus Kabikire.

By Arthur M. Katabalwa

Yesterday one of the most tragic events unfolded on the streets of Kampala in the most gruesome manner. A man jumped off one of the buildings in the central business district in full view of the public and committed suicide by impaling himself on some railings. The pictures that have been posted online show a man probably in his mid to late twenties, his life ebbing away as the crowds look on in shocked horror.

Reports that circulated later are that this man who is allegedly called Deus Kabikire decided life was no longer worth living because a relationship failed. He had written a note which was recovered on the scene about the motives for his actions.

Police Preparing to remove the body off the railings.

We all at certain times in our lives face incredible heartache and grief. There are those times when things almost seem too much to bear. And to many people the essence of life itself is put in doubt. Many of us may not have the emotional stability to handle such. Personally, the worst I have faced was when my father passed away and even then, he had taken it upon himself to prepare me for his passing that when it came, I knew what to do.

I was talking to  Mark (not real name)a friend last night about the demise of Deus and how he dealt with his own emotional heartache. I found that how he dealt with it was almost methodically militaristic in nature. He has recently lost a girlfriend and he said to me that he tried to fight to get her back but when he realized that his efforts were futile, he decided to have four days of grief. He locked himself away and let himself go through the emotions. On the fourth day, he emerged telling himself that he should look forward to another person to be in love with. Mark is now in a new relationship which he says is even better than the old one although he holds no grudges.

The reaction to Deus's actions were quite varied. Many people felt sorry for him but a lot met his action with derision. When one has a society with so many problems, suicide can be a very emotive thing. But for me, it was the feeling of loss for this man that was most pressing. That he felt that life was not worth living is sad. That he felt like there was no help is also sad. Indeed we don't have the counseling services in Uganda readily available for people like him. Doreen an old school friend wrote to me and she said that she offers services for people like Deus. But in most cases, these services are mainly within the medical industry especially for people with HIV.

A lot of our people are passing by burdened by grief of all sorts. Yet we think that grief associated to death is the one most notably dealt with.  When incidents like this man decide on such actions I think we should stop and search our souls. How are people like him helped? It isn't all down to a love gone sour. Most of us have been there but have pulled through and are now living a contented life in love again, probably better after learning from our past mistakes. Deus decided to end his life in such a brutal way. The pain of it for his family is exacerbated by the fact that the arrow of life maintains its direction, moving forward. Unfortunately Deus didn't want to move on any longer with it. However I am afraid that we will not learn from that poor limp body on those railings. Relationships will still fail, people in our midst will continue feeling suicidal but there is no help whatsoever for them. And that is another tragedy in itself.