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The tragic cost and interventions of workplace-related suicides

Africa News News African September 25, 2026 · Comments off

At eight o’clock during weekdays, millions of employees in Kenya are clocking into their workstations to begin their daily cores. To HR and supervisor dashboard metrics, the employees are present. In reality, however, this is a dangerous illusion in our organisations: the presenteeism myth.

Employees are physical at their workstation, but emotionally and mentally, far away. They are drowning under the heavy yoke of job stagnation, toxic environments and unrealistic roles. When the working environment shifts from a place of productivity to an ordeal of toxicity, the cost is no longer a measure of underperformance. It is a measure of human lives.

The month of September is celebrated as the Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. It is important that organisations begin to look beyond corporate regulations and confront the dark realities.

Official reporting by the National Guidelines on Workplace Mental Wellness shows that out of the total workforce of 24.9 million Kenyans, approximately 3.7 million of them are suffering from one form of mental health condition.

It translates to about 15 percent of the entire working adults in Kenya dealing with dementia, depression, burnout, anxiety, or substance use disorders. In addition, data from the Ministry of Health’s Mental Health Investment Case show that untreated mental health conditions are costing the country’s economy about Sh62.2 billion annually. This is a loss of 0.6 percent of the national GDP.

However, modern HR practices are leading the way in reforming the organisational punitive response to underperforming employees. When employee metrics suddenly drop, the result has been to reach out for surveillance: demanding reports and explanations, looking at clock-in times, or simply weaponising performance reviews as intimidation tools. In reality, surveillance is containment; not management.

HRs are realising that such actions make it impossible for employees to escape, transforming workplaces into psychological chambers of solitude. HRs are fundamentally pivoting their supervisors from a culture of monitoring to a culture of mentorship in three critical ways.

First, by replacing retaliatory demand letters and reports with constructive mentorship programmes. A sudden drop in performance need not be subjected to immediate disciplinary action. It is rarely a sign of negative inefficiency, rather a sign of distress of severe workplace stress. The question to be asked should be: “What support do you need?” and not “Why did you perform poorly?”

Second, is the need for organisations to implement compulsory due diligence and compassionate interventions. Third, is the need to do away with toxic scheduling and assignment overload. Subjecting employees to continuous, gruelling tasks is a violation of the organisation’s duty of care. HRs must proactively design sustainable workflows, audit team capacity and ensure that career growth is fair and transparent.

HRs and, by extension, organisations must embrace the psychological safeguards to protect their employees.

Less than this is the potential loss of life, legal implications, including lawsuits to top managers, and organisational reputation. Let us do all our efforts to ensure employee wellness takes centre stage and humanise our workplaces.

The writer is a Certified Human Resource Professional. Email: [email protected]

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