Kenya struggles to stem avalanche of femicides threatening women
If Kenya were ancient Rome, 2024 would have been annus horribilis (horrible year). Horrible because Kenya witnessed an epidemic of femicides that saw 170 women and girls killed, according to a report by Africa Data Hub/Odipo Dev and Africa Uncensored.
The list of stories is depressingly long, the details horrifying. Here is a sample of the many heart-rending stories of women killed, often by people known to them and in places they should be most secure.
On January 14, 2024, the mutilated remains of 20-year-old Rita Waeni were found stuffed in garbage bags at a rental apartment in Nairobi’s Roysambu area. Her head and personal effects were missing.
Her Instagram account indicated that the killer lured her to her death through the social media app.
As if snuffing out her life was not cruel enough, the killer tried to extort money from her family, sending them three messages from her phone demanding a ransom of Ksh500,000 within 24 hours to secure her release.
The family did not get any further details about the ransom or an opportunity to explore the demand. A family member told reporters that further demands were made after she had already been murdered.
Police later detained two suspects, one of them a foreigner attempting to leave the country on a Mozambican passport. Two other persons of interest were later arrested.
Just days before Waeni’s murder, the body of 26-year-old Starlet Wahu was found inside an Airbnb apartment in South B, Nairobi. Wahu was the younger sister of controversial evangelical preacher Victor Kanyari.
Police said the suspected killer had been seen getting into the apartment on January 3 at night. Police had to break down the door to the apartment and found a knife, two HIV test kits, and one used condom.
Makadara police boss Judith Nyongesa said Wahu bled to death after being stabbed in the thigh. A post-mortem examination also showed that she had been strangled.
John Matara was later charged with her murder, and his trial is still going on in a Nairobi court. When he was first arrested, several women stepped up to accuse him of assaulting them.
In September 2024, Uganda’s long-distance runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who had recently competed in the women’s marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics, was murdered in Trans Nzoia County.
The 33-year-old athlete succumbed to her injuries on September 5 after her former boyfriend allegedly set her ablaze after dousing her in petrol.
The brutal murder happened just weeks after she made her Olympic debut in the women’s marathon in Paris, where she finished 44th.
The suspect later succumbed to the burns he suffered during his attack on Cheptegei.
Relatives Dahabo Daud Said, Amina Dhahir, and Musayba Abdi Mohammed, residents of Eastleigh area in Nairobi, were reported missing in October 2024. Shortly after the story broke, their bodies were found in Parklands, Bahari, and Chumvi in Machakos County.
Hashim Dagane alias Hashim Khalif was arrested soon afterwards and in January 2025, he was charged with the murder of the three women and detained in police custody. The charge sheet included the name of a fourth victim, Deka Abdi Noor Gorane, his girlfriend, who had earlier gone missing.
Information emerging soon after his arrest suggested that Dagane was a former policeman in Ethiopia and had fled the country after he became the main suspect in the murder of his wife and three children.
In June 2024, at the height of the Gen Z protests in Kenya, several dismembered bodies were found dumped at the Kware dumpsite near Mukuru kwa Njenga slums in Nairobi.
Most of the victims were women, and their remains were wrapped in sacks and plastic bags.
The prime suspect of the killings, Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, remains at large after escaping from police custody alongside 13 other prisoners on August 20, 2024. The 33-year-old was waiting to be charged in court, allegedly after confessing to killing 42 women between 2022 and July 11, 2024.
According to Caroline Wandia, her sister, Risper Ng’endo, 26, left their home in Kirinyaga county on February 1, 2025, after receiving a call from Denis Kipkirui Kemei, her 27-year-old fiancé, asking her to visit him.
Wandia kept in touch with her sister until her calls stopped going through, probably because her phone battery was dead or the device was switched off.
Ng’endo’s body would later be found in Isinya, Kajiado county, according to her father, James Munene, who said Kemei called his (Munene’s) sister-in-law, Rose Njeri, to confess that he had killed her.
Out of some morbid mischief, Kemei misrepresented himself to Ng’endo’s family as a senior officer in the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) but was in reality a farm worker in Kajiado County.
He claimed that their phones had been switched off because they had travelled to the US, although Ng’endo did not have a passport.
Four days after she disappeared, Ng’endo’s body was found in a locked house in Isinya, Kajiado.
Kemei has since surrendered to the police and reportedly confessed that he killed Ng’endo on February 3, 2025, although the motive for the murder was not clear.
The relationship between Kemei and Ng’endo had lasted six years, and their families knew each other, underscoring the trend in most of the cases of women and girls killed by people they know, trust, and are comfortable with.
According to the Deputy Director of Investigations at the DCI, Paul Wachira, femicide refers to the killing of a woman or a girl, particularly by a man, on account of her gender.
Most femicides in Kenya are motivated by many variables, including the revenge of a jilted lover, domestic abuse, and business disagreements or envy.
According to Wachira, although the term femicide has been used in law enforcement circles since 1976, the concept is under-recognised in Kenya, where officials struggle with the language around it.
“Many believe femicide is not a distinct crime,” he recently told a workshop.
However, Wachira is emphatic that femicide is a form of gender-based violence that requires specific attention and legal interventions.
The femicides have sparked widespread outrage in the country and ignited calls for urgent action from the authorities, activists, and the public. With each case, the demand for justice grows louder as the nation struggles to confront a crisis that continues to claim the lives of its women.
According to Dr Mutuma Ruteere, the Director of the National Crime Research Centre, the problem is bigger than is publicly perceived because not all the crimes are reported.
In a recent interview with Spice FM, he explained that the magnitude of femicides is also clouded by the fact that some of the victims of gender-based violence die of their injuries or other effects months later.
He said police data was accurate about the spikes in femicides. Still, there was a statistical possibility that enhanced reporting of femicides by the expanded media space was shedding more light on the crime and that annual femicide reports give a clearer picture.
Contrary to the widely perceived opinion, Dr Ruteere ruled out love triangles and organ trafficking as the most significant motives in femicides.
At least 14 women were killed in January 2024 alone, adding to the already staggering toll of 150 such cases in 2023.
By the end of October 2024, the National Police Service had documented 97 killings of women within just three months.
In December 2024, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi announced that 7,107 cases of sexual and gender-based violence had been recorded since September 2023.
What the government is doing about femicide
In January 2025, President William Ruto appointed a 35-member Technical Working Group on Gender-based Violence, underscoring the enormity of the problem in the country and the need to address it.
Chaired by one-time Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza, the task force is expected to identify the causes of the violence, the trends, the hot spots, and the gaps in prevention, response, investigations, prosecution, data management, and survivor support systems, and recommend measures to curb the problem.
The task force has set up a specialised desk to tackle GBV, but it is mainly reactive, just handling the cases as they arise.
Kenya does not have standardised data collection and reporting dedicated to femicide and GBV, making it difficult to get a clear scope of the crimes.
Experts have also pointed out the failure of the Penal Code to sufficiently capture the “unique dynamics” of femicide compared to homicide as another setback in the war against this aspect of GBV.
Rights activists and legal experts also note that whereas the Sexual Offences Act of 2006 addresses gaps in the laws governing sexual and GBV crimes, it does not explicitly address femicide.
Data from the 2022 Demographic and Health Survey shows that 34% of women reported experiencing violence since the age of 15.
Meanwhile, Kenya continues to grapple with the rising wave of femicide, with alarming statistics painting a grim picture of violence against women.
In the next pages, the JFJ team brings you some of the femicides in Kenya that have shocked communities.
Dismembered and stuffed in a backpack: Did this woman have to die?
On the morning of January 22, 2025, John Kiama Wambua, 29, would have passed for a regular traveller carrying a backpack on his way to his destination. No one could have suspected that the heavy bag was stuffed with the body parts of a young woman he had dismembered.
Police officers from Huruma Police Station on patrol around Kelly Towers stopped Wambua at about 5am.
“He suspiciously clung to the heavy backpack. Having reason to believe that Wambua could be ferrying or trafficking something illegal, the officers opened the bag and, to their shock, found part of a mutilated human body,” said a detective investigating the matter.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, who took over the murder case, said that during interrogation, Wambua allegedly confessed that the body parts belonged to his wife, Joy Fridah Munani.
He then led the officers to his single-room house where more body parts of his 19-year-old victim were found.
According to the investigating officers, police recovered a knife believed to be the murder weapon and the victim’s clothes soaked in blood.
“The suspect confessed that the body parts belonged to his wife and led the officers to his house where more dismembered parts were recovered from under a bed,” said the detective.
The horrendous killing of Munani was among the latest in a worrying trend of femicide cases that have rocked Kenya.
Wambua was arraigned before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Gilbert Shikwe, who allowed the detectives to detain him for 21 days to give them time to complete their investigations.
Kassim Yakub, the lead investigating officer, told the court that the police needed the time to conduct the identification of the deceased through DNA testing, completion of the post-mortem, and assess the suspect’s mental health.
He added that the investigators were still searching for missing body parts and a potential second weapon believed to have been used to dismember the body.
She was killed for trying to help her husband save for their family house
Moses Wanjala Wasike sold a small plot of land received from his father to build his family house at Makhele village, Webuye West sub-county, in Bungoma county.
Wasike, the last-born child, and his wife of two years, Sylvia Khayecha Wanjala, were still living in his parents’ compound.
Well aware of her husband’s problems with alcohol abuse, Wanjala decided to secure the proceeds of the sale, Ksh78,000, by entrusting it to her sister for safekeeping.
On the fateful day – January 26, 2023 – Wasike demanded an explanation from his wife of two years when he could not find the money.
Her explanation that her sister was keeping the money safe for them so enraged the 30-year-old boda boda rider that he viciously attacked his wife, beating her mercilessly.
During the trial, High Court judge Rose Ougo heard that due to Wasike’s excessive drinking, the couple’s union was rocked by domestic conflicts.
His family said they suspected he was abusing drugs.
Wasike told the judge that his wife triggered the fight by not giving him a proper response as to why the money was missing from where he had kept it in their house.
He maintained that he did not harm his wife and that he woke up his brothers, who found Wanjala unwell and took her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
One of his brothers testified that he rushed to the couple’s house after Wasike told him that his wife had fainted. He found her lying on the floor, unconscious. He claimed that she had no visible injuries, but her clothes were dusty.
The judge dismissed Wasike’s suggestion that Wanjala had been attacked by a third party, saying he was alone in the house with his wife and that she was found unconscious because of the beating he had given her.
A post-mortem showed that Wanjala died of head injuries caused by a blunt object.
Justice Ougo ruled that Wasike caused the injuries as there was no third party during the fight.
“The evidence irresistibly points to the accused (Wasike) as the one who assaulted the deceased. He had the opportunity to do so and he did assault the deceased, causing her grievous bodily harm,” said the judge. “Under section 206 (a) of the Penal Code, an intention to cause grievous harm amounts to malice afterthought for purposes of a murder conviction.”
Wasike maintained that he did not kill his wife. He added that he was not remorseful and that their families had done reconciliation rituals.
However, Wanjala’s family insisted that he deserved punishment for taking her life.
The community perceived Wasike as an individual embroiled in domestic conflicts and linked to criminal groupings. He was also engaged in alcohol and drug abuse and did not respect authority.
His family wanted the court to give him a non-custodial sentence and said they were ready to take responsibility for his safety and would help him resettle and rebuild his life.
The prosecution opposed Wasike’s plea to be set free. In his report, the probation officer said the defendant did not deserve a non-custodial sentence.
While sentencing Wasike, Justice Ougo said: “I have considered the pre-sentence report, the accused’s mitigation, and the guidelines on sentencing. Murder is a very serious offence and the penalty provided in law is death. However, this court has the discretion to sentence the accused to a jail term or probation, depending on the facts of each case and mitigating factors.
“A life was lost and a sentence is not a measure of the value placed on the life of a victim. The victim was in an abusive marriage and lost her life due to injuries caused by the accused over monies she chose to keep because of the accused’s behaviour; his drinking and drug habit, which his own family confirms has been a problem to them and the community too.”
Justice Ougo noted that Wanjala’s family was still hurting and that the victim had died at the early age of 20 years as she sought to help her husband, only for the man to turn on her and inflict injuries that led to her death.
“The accused was not provoked at all. Though he seeks a non-custodial sentence, I am not persuaded he deserves it. Though his family wants him back home, the community does not. I note that the accused had been in remand for one-and-a-half years. I have taken this period into account,” said the judge as she sentenced Wasike to 20 years in prison.
I loved her, claims man who stabbed his lover to death
Richard Kiptoo Maiyo was standing by the roadside at Kiremo village in Timboroa, Baringo county, along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway when, from a distance, he saw a man and a woman fighting.
“It was around 5:30pm on December 3, 2014. When I looked closer, I saw that the man was holding a shiny object,” he testified in court.
Maiyo recognised the couple as Joshua Karanja and Tumaini Kwamboka, a woman who used to sell vegetables and fruits on the highway. The two were in a relationship.
He rushed to the scene and saw Kwamboka collapse while holding her abdomen. Karanja ran off as Maiyo approached, High Court judge Rachel Ng’etich heard.
He saw that Kwamboka’s intestines were exposed and that she was bleeding profusely. He shouted and people chased Karanja, but he managed to disappear into Timboroa Forest as they rushed Kwamboka to Timboroa Hospital. She died while being treated.
Lilian Moraa Labera, Kwamboka’s mother, recalled hearing people shout as she sold potatoes by the roadside.
She rushed to the scene only to find that her daughter had been stabbed. She rushed home to pick up a sweater for her when she returned she was informed that Kwamboka had died in hospital.
A post-mortem report indicated that Kwamboka died of excessive bleeding and punctured lungs. She had multiple wounds in the stomach, neck, and hands.
Karanja presented himself to Lessos Police Station in the neighbouring Nandi county three days later. He said he had called his mother who informed him that police officers were looking for him. He maintained his innocence.
A police officer testifying during Karanja’s trial for the murder said a day after turning himself in, the suspect offered to show the investigators where he had hidden the murder weapon. The knife was retrieved from Timboroa Forest, buried about 10 kilometres from a road.
The trial dragged on for 10 years, but Karanja was finally sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in 2024.
In his defence, Karanja said he had no previous criminal record and that he regretted the killing.
He claimed that police officers had tried to persuade him to admit he was guilty and in exchange they would drop the charges, but he declined.
He said he was a young man who had ambitions of becoming a teacher and had applied to Tambach Teachers College because he wanted to gain knowledge and contribute to society.
In mitigation, Karanja told the court that during his long stay in custody, he had participated in various rehabilitation programmes, including counselling and anger management, relationships, substance abuse, peer pressure, negotiation, and communication.
His lawyer said Karanja had taken theological courses which had contributed to his spiritual growth and asked to be granted an opportunity to be let out of prison to preach to young people.
The prosecution reminded the court that Karanja cut short the life of a young woman and that although the murder happened more than a decade before, Kwamboka’s family was yet to come to terms with the loss.
In her judgment, Justice Ng’etich said Karanja’s actions pointed to his guilt.
“He ran away from the scene and hid the murder weapon. From the postmortem report, the deceased sustained serious injuries and the injuries have no semblance of being inflicted accidentally,” said the judge.
She added that Kwamboka was subjected to great pain before her death.
“The accused subjected the deceased to inhuman treatment which in turn affected their loved ones who are yet to heal from the loss. There is no indication that the accused has made any effort to offer an apology to the deceased’s family, which may explain the reason they are still in pain and yet to recover from the loss.
“I am, therefore, inclined to impose 25 years’ imprisonment. The period served in remand be computed in the sentence.”
He killed her and forced her family to pay to find out where he hid her body
Described by the trial judge as a person with a dark and callous heart, 35-year-old Amos Kibet Bitok killed his girlfriend, Benedictor Jerobon, in cold blood in Nairobi almost nine years ago.
He then fled to Mombasa, 485 kilometres away, and called her family and employer to extort money from them, before informing them of her death. He even told them where to find the body.
Bitok recently lost an appeal to have his 30-year prison term reduced.
The three judges of the Court of Appeal said Bitok got a slap on the wrist for killing Jerobon in March 2016.
“He murdered his girlfriend, taking away an innocent life and his conduct then and thereafter can only be described as bizarre. He deserved the sentence imposed as circumstances of the case could have led to a death sentence,” justices Asike Makhandia, Agnes Murgor, and Sankale ole Kantai said in their ruling in June 2023.
Bitok had argued that sentencing him to 30 years’ imprisonment was equivalent to giving him a life sentence. He said he had cooperated with investigators by presenting himself to the police and that the court should be sympathetic to him.
The evidence showed that Jerobon, who was due to travel to the US for further studies, visited Bitok at a friend’s house in Dandora Phase 5. It is not clear what transpired, but Bitok killed her, repeatedly stabbing her with a kitchen knife.
He called her employer and sent rude messages. He also extorted money from the employer and Jerobon’s family before telling them where to find the body.
When he realised that the police had cornered him, he surrendered himself to the Nyali Police Station.
“All signs show that the accused murdered the deceased in cold blood. He even went further and extorted money from her family to give them information about her whereabouts,” Justice Jessie Lesiit, who heard the case and convicted and sentenced him in 2019, said.
The trial judge noted that Bitok’s information helped the family to locate Jerobon’s body.
“The action of the accused against the deceased, a naïve and trusting young woman according to the pre-sentence report, was heinous. The accused left the deceased bleeding from her wounds and travelled 500 kilometres away to report to the police. This was a serious offence committed most callously,” said the judge.
The trial judge termed Bitok as mean-hearted, callous, and aggressive. The court noted that his family and community expressed no sympathy for him.
There is no evidence of any provocation by the woman, said the judge.
In his mitigation before the sentence, Bitok lied that he had an eight-year-old daughter who was being taken care of by his grandmother.
He claimed that at the time of his arrest, he was a reformed casual labourer who attended church and had grown spiritually.
A probation report confirmed that he was not a father and that his parents were still alive, yet he had claimed that he was an orphan and that he had never met his father.
The report further stated that Bitok was expelled from two secondary schools due to indiscipline before he finally dropped out of school altogether.
According to the report, the community viewed him as a threat to security due to his past violent life, referring to the serious crimes committed he had committed, some still pending in court. The community had threatened to lynch him if he was released on a non-custodial sentence.
“On the side of the victim’s family, they are yet to recover from the loss of their loved one. They expressed shock at her untimely death at a time she was preparing to fly to the US to further her studies,” said Justice Lesiit, now a judge of the Court of Appeal.
Jealous ‘husband’ attacked her with an axe as she slept
James Nyamohanga Michael, his brother, and his brother’s wife, Norah Nyaboke, were involved in a bizarre love triangle. The brother was mentally challenged. According to Kuria culture, Nyamohanga was allowed to “step in” to help his disabled brother to have children by having a relationship with his sister-in-law.
Nyamohanga imagined that this gave him the right to feel jealous of Nyaboke although he was not her husband. He suspected that Nyaboke was having an affair with another man and threatened her with death.
A witness testified in court that Nyamohanga had warned Nyaboke that “one day, she will see”.
The court heard that Nyaboke was found lying dead in a bed in the family kitchen at Ngisim village in Kuria West District, Migori county, on July 7, 2011. She had several deep cuts on the head.
No one seemed to know who had attacked her.
A post-mortem report showed that Nyaboke died of massive loss of blood as a result of injuries to the head. The cuts were caused by a sharp object.
The police were notified of the incident and after interrogating several people, no information was forthcoming as to how she was killed or who did it.
The police officers recovered a blood-stained axe and a handwritten note. It was then suspected that Nyamohanga was behind the attack, but he was nowhere to be found.
Two days later, he surrendered himself to the G.K. Prison at Migori. He was arrested and taken to the Migori Police Station before he was handed over to officers from Isebania Police Station as investigations continued.
Testifying before Justice A.C. Mrima, one of Nyaboke’s sons said the relationship between the two was not cordial and that they differed many times.
On the fateful night, the two allegedly differed over the alleged love affair between Nyaboke and the other man.
The son recalled that at some point, the woman left the bedroom she shared with Nyamohanga and went to spend the night in his (son’s) room.
At the close of the prosecution’s case, Nyamohanga was placed on his defence in 2016, but he opted to remain silent.
The trial judge concluded that Nyamohanga was the author of the note that was found at the murder scene and that it was consistent with what happened to Nyaboke.
While sentencing him to death in 2017, Justice Mirma said it was obvious that he was fully aware that there was a serious risk that death or grievous bodily harm would ensue from his acts.
The judge said that while infidelity is to be abhorred in a marriage, how one handles such a matter makes all the difference, adding that it was important to exercise restraint.
He said he was unconvinced that Nyamohanga was justified in killing Nyaboke in such a merciless manner.
“Even if it is to be further taken that there was a disagreement between the deceased and the accused person, still, evidence is lacking to show that the totality of the circumstances justified the accused person to act in a fit of rage,” observed the judge.
The judge added that the killing was deliberate and without any lawful excuse and that Nyamohanga remained well aware that by hacking Nyaboke with an axe, he was exposing her to the risk of death or grievous harm.
“I say so in taking into account the number of times the accused person cut the deceased (Nyaboke) on the head and with an axe and without any evidence of provocation or self-defence. That was therefore a clear manifestation of malice.”
In June 2022, Nyamohanga was back in court, seeking a reduction of his sentence.
In his application, he said he was 35 years old and his aged parents needed his support.
He also claimed that he had been rehabilitated during the time he was in prison.
The prosecution opposed the application saying he had not produced any evidence to support the claim that he had children and aged parents who needed his care or that he had skills acquired while in prison.
The prosecution added that his death sentence had already been commuted to life imprisonment through the president’s power of mercy.
“The circumstances of the offence were aggravated and call for a severe and deterrent sentence,” the prosecution submitted.
“I have considered the period of about four (4) years that the accused was in remand. I hereby sentence him to serve forty (40) years imprisonment from the date of sentence on 17/2/2017,” Justice Roselyn Wendoh said.
‘He killed my mother to punish me for rejecting him’
When Felicia Omollo Keya was murdered on the night of June 2016, at Namasongo village in Samia, Busia county, suspicion fell squarely on her son-in-law, Thomas Onyango Ogedi.
Onyango was the main suspect because he had threatened to harm the old woman to punish his ex-wife, Jessica Anunda, who had left him.
Testifying during his trial, Anunda claimed that Onyango had hired killers to eliminate her mother after she refused to go back to him. She claimed that he had sent her several threatening messages, warning her of his intentions.
Onyango was arrested after she handed the phone messages to the police.
He denied the murder charge, saying he was nowhere near the scene on the day Keya was murdered.
He was acquitted after the prosecution fumbled the evidence, failing to present the incriminating messages.
Releasing Onyango, Justice Kiarie Waweru noted that none of the alleged incriminating messages were exhibited from Anunda’s phone nor certified copies obtained from the service provider.
“All that the prosecution did was to obtain call logs produced by Vincent Mambu (the investigating officer),” said the judge.
Although Mwambu agreed that it was possible to retrieve the text messages, there was no explanation as to why he failed to do so and table them in court.
“There was no explanation why the prosecution did not obtain the same. Failing to adduce such crucial evidence may only lead to an inference that had it been adduced, it could have been adverse to the prosecution case,” said the judge, adding that the prosecution must make available all the evidence and witnesses necessary to establish the truth even if these are inconsistent.
Quoting an earlier decision, Justice Waweru said when the evidence called is barely adequate, the court may infer that the evidence of the uncalled witnesses was adverse to the prosecution.
The judge said the call log data produced in court only established that there was communication between Onyango and Anunda, but shed no light on the nature of the calls
“The prosecution did not discharge its burden on what it alleged the accused told PW1 (Anunda) in those messages,” added the judge.
He said this meant that there was nothing to tie Onyango to the murder.
The judge said suspicion, however strong, cannot provide the basis for inferring guilt, which must be proved by evidence beyond reasonable doubt. The evidence of the parked bicycle at Onyango’s house (suspected to have been used by the killers), as adduced by Corporal Pius Rono, had no probative value in the case and did not indicate that the accused had committed the murder.
“I, therefore, find that the prosecution has failed to prove the offence of murder against the accused whom I acquit and set free unless otherwise lawfully held,” Justice Waweru said.
Man killed pregnant wife and daughter, then claimed he was insane
Witnesses who testified in court recalled seeing Kenya Police Reserve officer Khalif Ronoh Ahmed walking into a kiosk in Wajir town on January 28, 2011, and, apparently unprovoked, shooting dead two brothers, Hussein Korow Abdi alias Onsenguro and Ibrahim Billow Mohamed.
When their father, Hussein Abdi, tried to intervene, he too, was shot and injured on the backside.
The former Postal Corporation of Kenya worker then went to his home at Elben market in Wajir town and shot dead his pregnant wife, Barey Bulle Alason, and daughter, Asha Ronoh Khalif.
He was arrested 60 kilometres away from Wajir town, claiming that he was feeling dizzy and insisting that he had no recollection of what had happened.
High Court Judge Charles Kariuki recently dismissed Ahmed’s appeal for a reduction of the maximum sentence he had received for the murders, saying he deserved no mercy.
“I find that the killing of four people, including a baby in his wife’s womb, literally five persons (lives), is unjustified and calls for a maximum penalty. Thus, though the trial court never considered mitigation and treated the penalty as mandatory, in the circumstances of this case, the sentence is merited as a maximum penalty not as a mandatory sentence.”
The judge dismissed Ahmed’s defence of mental illness, saying there was no evidence to back up his claims as he never proved that he was mentally ill or relied on the defence of insanity.
During the trial, Ahmed did not deny the shootings, merely saying he was confused.
The court said although Ahmed claimed that he had previously been admitted to Mathare Hospital with a mental illness for two weeks, he did not suggest or rely on a defence of insanity or lunacy.
The judge said had he taken that route, he would have been subjected to the provisions of section 166 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows an accused person to plead the defence of insanity but one must table relevant evidence, which the court rigorously evaluates.
The judge said the prosecution had proved malice aforethought against the accused on all four counts.
“I thus find the accused guilty of all the four (4) counts of murder and accordingly convict him on all the four (4) counts of murder contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the Penal Code respectively,” said the judge.
After spending 20 years in prison, Ahmed claimed he was repentant and remorseful.
The 65-year-old man confessed that he had killed his wife, allegedly because he had found her in a compromising situation with another man.
But Justice Kariuki dismissed his plea, saying the killing of four people and a baby in the womb was unjustified and called for a maximum penalty against the killer.
Businesswoman’s life ended most cruelly, forever changing her family
Monica Kimani was an enterprising businesswoman whose acumen enabled her family to plant a firm foothold in South Sudan.
From evidence tendered in court, the 29-year-old had a big dream that was cut short on the night of September 19, 2018, shortly after arriving in Kenya from her many business trips to South Sudan after which she was scheduled to travel to Dubai.
“Monica died a very painful and cruel death. It was a grisly death, as her murder was one of the most heinous. Her throat was slit from ear to ear by what investigators said was a highly skilled person. Her hands and legs were bound with straps before her throat was slit,” observed Justice Grace Nzioka.
The judge made the observation shortly before she sentenced Joseph Irungu, commonly referred to as Jowie, to death for the gruesome murder.
According to evidence presented in court, Kimani went to spend the night in her apartment at Lamuria Gardens in Kilimani, Nairobi. She called her brother and promised to meet the family the following day before flying to Dubai. However, that was never to be. Her body was found in her bathtub the following morning.
The prosecution, through State Counsel Wangui Gichui, presented 35 witnesses and documentary evidence to prove the case against Irungu, who was charged alongside his fiancée then, Jacqueline Maribe. The two lived at Royal Park Estate in Lang’ata, Nairobi.
Maribe, a former television news anchor, was acquitted after the judge found that she was not involved in the murder.
Justice Nzioka used “the last seen” doctrine, which dictates that the person who is last seen with a murdered person is likely to have committed the offence.
The judge concluded that all the prosecution’s evidence backed up by triangulation technology, a stolen identification card, and clothing placed Irungu at the scene of the crime and he was the last person with the victim before her body was found.
“He stole an identification card, armed himself with a gun, carried a kanzu, put it over his clothes, went to Lamuria Gardens, disguised his identity, gained access to the apartment, murdered the deceased, left the deceased’s house, changed his clothes, and eventually went home and burnt the clothes which he wore during the commission of the offence,” ruled Justice Nzioka.
The lead investigator, Maxwell Otieno, re-created Kimani’s last moments and traced Irungu’s movements.
“It was a well-executed plan where the accused stole an identity card at their Royal Park Estate residence and used it to access Lamuria Gardens, where he committed the murder, went back and burnt the clothes, and borrowed a gun to shoot himself,” Otieno told the court.
According to the investigator, Irungu’s movement started at Road House Grill in Kilimani, where he spent the evening on September 19, 2018, drinking with friends.
He arrived at the restaurant at around 6pm in Maribe’s car while in the company of two friends and at around 8pm, he left the venue and went to Lenana Road from where he took a taxi to Kimani’s house at Lamuria Gardens.
He gained access to the well-guarded apartment building using a stolen identity card and went straight to House Number 8 on Block A, where Kimani resided.
The owner of the stolen ID told the court that he had gone to work at Royal Park Estate, where Irungu and Maribe lived, and left his ID at the gate.
Another witness testified that Irungu was let in at Lamuria Gardens after he presented the stolen ID at the gate.
Irungu was identified as the last person with Kimani before she was found murdered. According a witness, he visited Kimani’s house on the night of her arrival from South Sudan and found her in the company of Irungu and another man called Walid.
“After about one-and-a-half hours, Walid left, and I also excused myself. I reasoned that it was good to leave Jowie and Monica to themselves since he looked familiar with the house and like someone who knew every place,” the witness told the court.
Reagan Buluku, the caretaker, said Kimani’s body was found in her bathroom, with both legs and hands tied and blood flowing from her slit throat.
Photographs of the scene showed her mouth covered with tape and blood splattered on the kitchen floor and the bathroom.
Dr Peter Ndegwa, who performed the post-mortem, said Kimani’s death was caused by excessive bleeding due to severe neck injury and trauma.
Otieno said Irungu joined Maribe at a club in Westlands after committing the murder. They later went home together and hatched a plan to cover up the crime.
It was the prosecutor’s case that Irungu borrowed a pistol from a neighbour, shot himself in the shoulder, and went to the hospital, pretending that they had been attacked by thugs.
The judge ruled that the killing of Kimani was intentional and that Irungu did not act out of provocation but planned, intended, and executed the cold-blooded murder.
She said the prosecution had proved that Irungu had tactical military training in Dubai, was violent, and always brandished a gun at the guards at Royal Park estate while refusing to be searched at the gate.
In passing the death sentence, the judge cited the consequence of the murder on Kimani’s family, saying it had led to the collapse of their business in South Sudan and that her mother suffered depression and a stroke, which she has never recovered from.
“In an act of murder, one person’s life ends but a countless number of lives are forever impacted. Murder leaves behind a trail of shattered dreams and broken hearts that can never be healed,” Justice Nzioka observed.
Horrified friends could not save her from savage attack
Had Ivy Wangeci been alive today, she would probably be among the doctors working day and night to save the lives of thousands.
Her dream of being a medical doctor was cut short by her childhood friend, Naftali Kinuthia, on the eve of her 25th birthday on April 9, 2019, just a few months before she completed her six-year journey as a medical student at Moi University in Uasin Gishu county.
Wangeci’s death was murder most foul. It happened in broad daylight, before the horrified eyes of her friends, colleagues, classmates, and patients at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. And just like that, Wangeci’s potential was ended by an act of cruelty and heartlessness.
Kinuthia is serving a 40-year jail term after being found guilty of her murder by Eldoret High Court Judge Stephen Githinji.
“The circumstances in which he committed the murder do not warrant sympathy. He denied the deceased a chance to live and go on with her life in which she would have graduated as a medical doctor. How he committed the crime justifies the 40-year sentence,” ruled Justice Githinji.
Having listened to witness testimonies from the public, Wangeci’s family, classmates and forensic experts, Justice Githinji concluded that Kinuthia premeditated the murder and that if indeed he had no intention to kill, he would have used his bare fists to attack the victim.
Kinuthia was aged 29 at the time and was an IT specialist working for a betting firm in Nairobi.
Police investigations revealed that Kinuthia had sent Wangeci some money she requested for her birthday celebration, but when he sought to communicate with her afterwards, she was unreachable.
This seemed to be the turning point. Kinuthia felt slighted and drove some 312 kilometres to Eldoret.
Some witnesses told police that when Kinuthia arrived in Eldoret, he met Wangeci by the roadside on her way from the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
They reportedly had a brief chat after which she excused herself to go to the hostels. She promised to meet him later, but this did not happen. Kinuthia called her, but Wangeci did not answer his calls.
According to the investigators, this enraged Kinuthia, and he decided to go to Eldoret town to buy an axe and a knife. He sharpened the tools, concealed them in a white gunny bag, and loaded them in his vehicle.
He then hatched the plot to kill Wangeci and started tracing her movements. On that fateful morning, Kinuthia drove to the hospital and parked his car near the Nyayo Ward, where Wangechi was doing her rounds.
Shortly after 10 am, Wangeci emerged from the wards with her colleagues and classmates. This presented the opportune time Kinuthia was waiting for.
He armed himself with the axe and rushed towards Wangeci, and in a split second, he hefted the axe and hacked her twice on the head as her shocked friends and the public stood paralysed, watching.
It was instant death for the final-year medical student, who had only a few months to graduate.
Wangeci’s friends said Kinuthia was obsessed with Wangeci even after she rejected his advances and declined to meet him whenever he went to Eldoret.
When cornered, Kinuthia admitted to killing Wangeci because of the pain of rejection. He claimed they had been in a relationship, but Wangeci turned him down even after he had spent a lot of money on her upkeep.
In his defence, Kinuthia told the court that he travelled to Eldoret on the material day to personally convey to Wangeci his birthday wishes after she blocked him on the phone, which made it impossible to communicate with her.
Although he admitted that their relationship had broken down, he wasn’t ready to let go and had tried talking to her friends to help them reconcile, but it did not work out.
Kinuthia told the court that he intended to deliver the balance of Sh14,000 Wangeci had requested for her birthday party, wish her well, and travel back to Nairobi.
According to him, he spotted Wangeci leaving the hostel and went to meet her, but she turned him away and rejected his advances.
“It became apparent that she wanted nothing to do with me. I felt like a loser and hopeless because of the rejection. I became angry and felt bad that our childhood connection had come to an end,” Kinuthia narrated.
He retreated to his car, which was parked about 50 metres away, and when he looked back, he saw her hugging and holding hands with another man.
Kinuthia confessed that he couldn’t bear the sight of Wangeci with another ma,n and in a fit of anger, he picked up the axe and attacked her.
“At that point, I lost control of myself and was too angry because of what was happening before me. I wasn’t myself and can’t tell how I decided to pick up the axe and attack her,” he said.
Justice Githinji was not convinced that he was provoked after Wangeci dumped him for another man.
According to the judge, there was no evidence that the two were in an intimate relationship, and a forensic analysis of their text messages did not reveal an existing love affair.
The judge said it was cruel for Kinuthia to use a lethal weapon on someone he claimed to be in love with.
“He used an axe to ensure the deceased had no chance of survival. If he was enraged and did not want to kill her then he should have used bare fists and not the axe. I find his claims of provocation to be lies,” ruled Justice Githinji.
The judge held that although Kinuthia claimed that the axe was in his car for security reasons, the prosecution had proved that it was new and had been sharpened using a grinder.
He added that Kinuthia’s decision to use the axe instead of the knife, which would have given the deceased a chance of survival, showed that he had malice aforethought.
Justice Githinji dismissed Kinuthia’s claims that he committed the crime in the heat of the moment and because of provocation, ruling that there was no evidence that the two were lovers since they were only old childhood friends.
Murder most foul: Will Sharon and her baby finally get justice?
Sharon Otieno was abducted from a hotel in Rongo town, Migori county, on the night of September 3, 2018.
Her disappearance and subsequent death would have remained a mystery had it not been for a journalist, who is now a protected witness, who heroically jumped out of the abductors’ moving car and lived to tell the tale.
It is his story that led to the arrest and prosecution of the then-Migori governor, Okoth Obado, his personal assistant, Michael Oyamo, and a former clerical officer at the Migori county government, Caspal Obiero, as suspects in the murder of the 26-year-old Rongo University student, who was seven months pregnant.
Six-and-a-half years after the murder, a court of law in January 2025 determined that Obado, Oyamo, and Obiero have a case to answer and put them on their defence.
Justice Cecilia Githua ruled that the prosecution had submitted sufficient evidence to warrant putting the three on their defence.
“After considering all the witness testimonies and documentary evidence adduced by the prosecution, the court is satisfied that the prosecution has established a prima facie case to warrant putting all three accused persons on their defence. I find each accused with a case to answer,” she said.
This means that the burden of proving their innocence has shifted to the three, who risk the death sentence if they are convicted of the murder.
DNA analysis confirmed that the now-former governor was the biological father of Otieno’s unborn child.
Her body was found at Kowade Forest in Oyugis, Rachuonyo sub-county in Homa Bay county, more than 100 kilometres from the hotel where she was abducted.
The identity and testimony of the main witness, the journalist who escaped from the clutches of the abductors, was concealed as he is now a protected witness. His story was recounted by police officers and the first people he met after escaping from the killers’ vehicle.
Willy Okoti, a police officer stationed at Kadel Police Station, recorded the first statement from the witness, who was taken to the station by a good Samaritan.
He said that had the witness not jumped out of the moving vehicle, he would not be alive as the abductors had threatened to kill him for investigating allegations that Obado had made Otieno pregnant.
“He was visibly shaken, trembling and fearing for his life when he came to the police post to report the incident. His trousers were torn at the knees and he was bleeding from the palms of his hands and knees,” said Okoti.
The witness told him it all started when he (the witness) and Otieno met with the governor’s personal assistant (Oyamo) at the Graca Hotel in Rongo town.
Oyamo asked Otieno and the witness to board another vehicle to take them to a different hotel, but unknown to them, it was a ruse to hand them over to their abductors and suspected killers.
After about 300 metres, the car stopped and Oyamo alighted and invited two other people standing nearby to join them. The vehicle sped off towards Homa Bay town, leaving Oyamo behind.
“The witness told me that he was threatened by the men and told that he was going to be killed for investigating allegations that the governor had made Sharon pregnant,” said Okoti.
Fearing for his life, the witness jumped out of the vehicle as it sped on the stretch between Homa Bay and Kendu Bay towns and managed to escape.
He asked the good Samaritan to take him to the Kadel Police Post.
Since the witness was in pain and wanted to be taken to hospital, Okoti called the Kendu Bay OCS, who responded immediately and drove away with the witness.
Forensic analyst John Mungai confirmed that DNA profiles generated from buccal swabs from Otieno, Obado, and the foetus proved that the ex-governor was the biological father.
Lawrence Mula, a former member of the Homa Bay County Assembly, admitted that he knew about the relationship between Obado and Otieno and that the governor was concerned by the woman’s high demands.
The post-mortem report by Kenya’s Chief Government Pathologist, Dr Johansen Oduor, showed that Otieno was stabbed seven times and slashed twice and that she died as a result of severe haemorrhage due to penetrating force.
Scene of Crime Specialist Lillian Saka told the court that the evidence collected at the scene included a torn condom wrapper, two used condoms, an alcohol wrapper, a bottle top, and disturbed vegetation.
According to Mula, Otieno was demanding that the governor finance a lavish lifestyle, including a house worth Sh25 million, a car, and Sh5 million for her upkeep in return for her silence and that at one point she insisted on attending pre-natal clinics at Nairobi Hospital instead of hospitals in Homa Bay.
The prosecution said that although Otieno’s murder was a puzzle that shook the country’s social, cultural, and religious fabric, the investigators did a commendable job of putting the pieces together, with the resulting evidence showing that the three accused were the perpetrators.
Their case, backed up by the evidence of 42 witnesses, was that Otieno was a young university student struggling to overcome the challenges of her life’s situation and did not deserve to die a painful death with her unborn baby.
Having adjudged that Obado, Oyamo, and Obiero have a case to answer, it will now be their turn to call their witnesses and tell their side of the story before the court makes a final determination on Otieno’s murder.
Shoddy investigations let ‘serial killer of women’ off the hook
When Philip Onyancha confessed to killing 17 people, mainly women, his story sounded like a script from a movie scene.
It shocked the nation that Onyancha, who at the time of his arrest in June 2010 was 32 years old, had allegedly hopped from one place to another, luring his victims to their doom, strangling them, drinking their blood, and hiding their bodies in unknown places.
He was immediately labelled a serial killer as he led police investigators from one location to another in search of the bodies of his alleged victims.
He told investigators that he had been recruited into a cult whose leader had instructed him to kill 100 people and drink their blood to get good fortune.
Excerpts from his confessions, recorded by police and presented to the court, showed that Onyancha claimed that “satanic spirits” had taken control of him and led him to commit the killings.
One confession recorded on June 13, 2010, indicated that he sucked one of his victim’s blood until she died before dumping her in a bathroom.
“When I saw her removing her top dress and sweater, my satanic spirit started entering my body. This is the time it starts controlling my body, I told her to lie on the bed. I grabbed her neck and held her. I sucked her blood through her vein in the neck. After I emptied her blood, I took her to the bathroom.”
Onyancha told investigators that the spirits seized him when he made eye contact with another victim and that “the spirits” enabled him to control their communication.
“I had direct eye contact with her. I then felt a spirit rising inside me, urging me to drink human blood. After the eye contact, I could control how she would respond to me in a way that she could not do in a normal state of mind,” said the statement.
His confessions led to the recovery of three bodies – two women and a child – from where he said he had disposed of them.
Onyancha was subsequently charged with the murder of Catherine Chelangat and Jaqueline Chepng’etich Misoi. He faced another charge of killing nine-year-old Anthony Njirwa at Ngando village in Dagoretti, Nairobi County.
It was Njirwa’s death that led to his arrest after the boy’s father reported to police that his son was still missing even after he had paid a ransom to his kidnappers.
Police tracked down Onyancha through the mobile phone number the boy’s father had used to transfer the money.
According to investigators, Onyancha admitted to killing the boy and led detectives to where he had disposed of the body. Police said he confessed to committing other murders, including killing the two women.
Kibera Chief Magistrate Dickson Onyango jailed him for 10 years for attempted rape and an additional two years for assault in an attack on a woman on February 19, 2009.
Although Onyancha is still at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison waiting for the conclusion of two other murder cases, he was acquitted of the first count of murder in 2021.
Justice Jessie Lesiit said the prosecution had failed to prove that Onyancha killed Jackline Chepngetich on May 30, 2008, at her apartment in Mount Kenya building along the Kombo Munyiri Road in Nairobi.
The judge observed that although Onyancha may have been condemned based on his earlier confessions, he deserved a right to freedom irrespective of what was believed that he did.
He disowned the confessions during the trial, arguing that he was not in his right mind at the time he made them.
On the issue of his mental status, Justice Lesiit ruled that Onyancha was not insane but was disturbed by events in his life that destabilised his mind.
“He was found to have suffered trauma and had a narcissistic mental disorder whose characteristics psychiatrists described as having an exaggerated sense of self-importance and preoccupations with fantasies of unlimited success, power, and brilliance, and belief he was a unique person,” she said.
She added that Onyancha had unrealistic expectations and lacked empathy but had never been insane.
Onyancha was arrested and charged in 2010 with Chepngetich’s murder two years earlier in 2008. Like many of the femicide cases in Kenya, justice was not served because the police failed to do a good job. In this case, the prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence and Onyancha’s confession.
The prosecution’s case was that Onyancha was the last person seen in Chepngetich’s house before she was found dead, according to a security guard.
According to the judge, the prosecution did not prove that she did not commit suicide but was strangled.
“The investigations were wanting and the witnesses contradicted themselves and could not remember if they saw the accused at the apartment on the fateful day,” she said.
She criticised the investigators for failing to call expert witnesses to confirm whether some handwriting found in Chepngetich’s bathroom belonged to Onyancha or whether a phone number she used to communicate with her brother shortly before her death belonged to the accused.
Further, the investigators did not analyse blood stains found on the deceased’s door, even though this would have clarified if it was a suicide or a murder.
“I find that the prosecution did not adduce evidence sufficient to cogently and firmly establish the circumstances from which the inference of guilt was sought to be drawn. The evidence adduced fell far below proof on the required standard of proof of beyond any reasonable doubt,” she ruled.
Justice Lesiit concluded that although the evidence by pathologists suggested that the deceased might have not committed suicide due to the injuries on her neck, there was no evidence that it was Onyancha who had killed her.
Domestic conflicts end with murder of mason’s wife
Before Michael Mburu Mwaura left his home at Ndarasa village in Juja, Kiambu county, to go to his casual job in Juja, his wife of seven years had asked him for some money.
He promised to give it to her when he returned in the evening. Mburu, a mason, and his wife Catherine Nyambura had a history of frequent conflicts.
He didn’t get any money that day and, fearing a confrontation with his wife for failing to keep his promise, he decided to go to a local bar to pass the time with his friends over drinks before walking home.
Two of the couple’s children were already asleep in the sitting room while his wife and the youngest child slept in the bedroom, which also doubled up as the family’s kitchen.
The children sleeping in the sitting room recalled their parents quarrelling and their mother pleading for help from the eldest one – Richard – saying she was being killed.
When Richard tried to open the bedroom door, his father ordered him to go back to sleep. The house fell quiet as their mother’s screams suddenly stopped.
In the morning, the children tried to open the door but it was still locked.
Thirteen-year-old Esther recalled asking for breakfast but there was no response from her mother. When she asked her father to fetch her school shoes from under the bedroom, she was told to use bathroom slippers instead.
The girl set off for Magomano Primary School, just a few minutes away. While on the way, she decided to pass by her Aunt Isabella’s place to borrow shoes.
She explained that her parents were in a fight last night, and she was going to school on an empty stomach as her mother had not prepared breakfast.
Her aunt sent her on her way with a pair of sports shoes. She then went to her sister’s house to find out what had happened.
She was taken aback to find the place swarming with police officers. Mwaura had presented himself to the Juja Police Station after bludgeoning his wife to death with a hammer.
He was charged with Nyambura’s murder on the night of September 19, 2019 at Ndarasa village, Kiambu county.
On November 22, 2024, High Court Judge Rachel Ng’etich found Mburu guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The judge said although Mburu hit his wife on the head with a hammer, he had not planned to take her life.
“Evidence adduced by the children confirms that the murder weapon, a hammer, was a tool of trade for the accused. The children said he took it with him every morning when he left the house and he usually kept it under the bed. He had not, therefore, planned to use it to kill his wife,” said the judge.
“From children’s evidence, the accused and the deceased had been quarrelling and on the material night, the accused did not have the money his wife expected him to give her as he had failed to get work that day.”
Mburu admitted quarrelling with his wife over money and said he had none because he didn’t find work that day. He insisted that he did not intend to kill his wife and pleaded for mercy, saying he regretted his actions.
“There is proof beyond reasonable doubt that it is the accused who unlawfully caused the death of the deceased (Catherine),” said the judge.
