Rising femicide cases in Nakuru sparks public outcry

A series of femicide cases have raised concern in Nakuru following the murder of five ladies in a span of a month with majority of the cases involving couples.

An online campaign for justice for the 21-year-old Fedelis Chepchumba, who was recently killed by her boyfriend in Mombasa has erupted across the various social media pages in Nakuru which are calling for the arrest of the perpetrator.

Leading the charge, Ann Okelo is using her social media to call for action and seek justice for Chepchumba.

“Like many young women, she came to Mombasa chasing a better life, a job, a future. But instead of finding opportunity… She met death. Fedelis was found lifeless in a house in Likoni, a place that should have been safe……Reports indicate that she was strangled to death by her boyfriend, a person she lived with and trusted, “reads part of her post.

Chempchumba is not the only lady who has lost her life in the hands of her lover. In Bahati, two women were killed.

The murder of 29-year-old Ann Mugweru by her military husband is perhaps one that caused a serious uproar from the netizens in Nakuru.

The social media pages in Nakuru were awash with photos and news of the Kenya defense force captain Edwin Muthomi whom netizens called for his arrest and ultimate prosecution for Mugweru’s murder.

Muthomi who was eventually arrested was found to be unfit to stand trial after the psychiatric examination revealed that he suffered from bipolar and Post Traumatic Stress disorders.

The court thus referred him to Mathare Mental Hospital for treatment after being guided by a mental assessment done on Muthomi.

Another case of femicide relates to Jackline Awor, a 30-year-old security guard attached to Protective Custody Security Ltd who was killed and body was mutilated before being dumped into a thicket with her head missing.

 Police investigations however led to the arrest of her husband who led them to the scene where he had disposed of the head.

North Sub County police, Charity Karimi, revealed that the victim had been torched by her husband.

“It was only after the suspect was arrested in Kakamega where he had escaped to, we were able to recover the head. The suspect had gorge out one eye which police never managed to recover while the other one, he had made attempts to gorge it out,” She notes

In yet another love triangle murder, a husband in Bahati also killed his wife, made his way to the police station to report an assault case but was instead arrested for murder. When police accompanied him back home to arrest his wife for assault, they found her lifeless in their home.

In Molo a 13-year-old girl’s body was found in a dam and investigations are still underway to establish the cause of her death.

In response to the matter Nakuru County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Gender, Elga Ryaga, has raised concerns on the spike in femicide cases across the county.

She stressed on the sanctity of human life, stating that no circumstance, whether domestic disputes or relationship conflicts, justifies taking another person’s life.

“Let us use these cases as a defining one. Let a strong message be sent to the men killing our women. If you cannot manage the woman you claim to love, leave her and let her go back to her parents. Killing her will not add any value to you, the best you will get is jail,” she says.

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