We need justice for murdered women

Jennifer Wambua

Former National Lands Commission deputy communications director Jennifer Wambua, who was found murdered and her body dumped in Kajiado County on March 12, 2021.

Photo credit: Pool | Nation Media Group

Kenya’s famed misogynists are stunned. They must have choked on their keg when the frightful murderer Jane Muthoni, who hired thugs to kill her husband, Kiiru Boys High School Principal Solomon Mwangi Mwangi five years ago at Karakuta Coffee Estate in Juja, was sentenced to serve only 25 years in jail. She got 30 years but in his immutable wisdom, Mr Justice Joel Ngugi backdated the sentence to 2016.

Granted: Muthoni is a scary specimen, even the huge waves of her fake hair remind one of the hissing coils of medusa’s snakes. And the way she killed her husband, well many chickens have been killed with more compunction.

I think maybe Muthoni should have got life, not because she killed a man but because I think the prosecution proved that she is a remorseless murderer. If you believe your spouse is moving around with M-Pesa shop attendants, for crying out aloud, those are not grounds for having their necks wrung by thugs. Those are grounds for divorce.

Those men who are unhappy that a mankiller was not dragged and quartered of course forget that we live in a society that seems to accept the casual murder of women by men. And it drives me up a wall. I cannot understand why people do not get as worked up as I do when a man who is stronger, wealthier and more powerful than a woman kills her because, in his opinion, she has become a “nuisance”. Besides, he can. And get away with it to boot.

Sharpened an axe

Do you remember the lovely Ivy Wangeci, the sixth-year medical student from Moi University? It was reported in the papers that a stalker cut her throat and bludgeoned her with an axe because she was ignoring his unwanted attention. It was also claimed that he had travelled all the way from wherever, waylaid her as she finished her ward duties to complain that she was not taking his calls.

Her birthday was coming up too and she had not invited him, if I recall the details well. She excused herself to go to her room to change from hospital scrubs and freshen up, the reports claimed. She must have been tired from her ward rounds; the last thing she needed was some nightmare from the past breathing toxicity in her life.

According to those press reports, somebody went, bought and sharpened an axe and a knife. Then he killed her on the road, in broad daylight. Do you remember Sharon Otieno, the Rongo University student who was brutally murdered along with her unborn baby four years ago?

A few days ago, there was a social media campaign by university students over the numerous killings of their colleagues. One particularly haunting image is that of what is claimed is a Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology Student. Her bloodied body is dumped like so much rubbish by the roadside, spread-eagled, her underwear nearby, her dignity, thank God, only spared by what appears to be a red plastic bag or bin liner. Who is this child of God? And who killed and – most probably – raped her?

I am sure you will recall the March 9, 2021 case of Velvine Nungari Kinyanjui and that of National Lands Commission Deputy Director of Communications Jennifer Wambua. Both were raped and killed. And these are just a few of the many women who are sexually assaulted and killed and society does not seem to care. The cases drag on in the courts until they are forgotten and we all move on with our lives. In the final analysis, justice is either delayed, or not done at all.

We never found and punished those who killed Mercy Keino, the University of Nairobi student who is believed to have been murdered and her body discarded like a ragdoll on Waiyaki Way to be run over by trucks.

Glorify political nonsense

Where is the justice for all these children? We have been on Twitter singing praises to the Judiciary for delivering political judgments. But we haven’t been on Twitter demanding that the courts expeditiously and fairly try these cases and bring punishment to these killers, many who are wealthy and powerful men?

In a civilised, sane society, the lives of these girls would be worth a lot more than all the politics in the world. It exposes our emptiness when we glorify political nonsense and have no time for even the preservation of the lives of our children; we are merely playing moral, high-sounding games while all the time we are hard-eyed, money-grubbing, social climbing little beings whose main interest is to join the cartels on the gravy train.

The men who are killing our women should be punished in the same way Muthoni was for murdering her husband. This is not to say any killers should be let off: the killers of Chris Msando, Jacob Juma and many other people should be found and subjected to the due process of the law. But there should be a specific intolerance for this relentless violence against women.

Muthoni got off a bit lightly, but at least she was punished. What about the killers of the women I have spoken of and many more?