Toxic love: The tragic story of Wangeci and Kinuthia

The High Court in Eldoret had earlier found Kinuthia, 33, guilty of murdering Wangeci after their love affair went sour. 

Read:  Man hacks to death medical student at Moi Referral, Eldoret

Wangeci, then 25, was due to graduate in a few months.

Her family was planning a surprise party to celebrate the academic milestone. But the dream was cut short when she met her untimely demise on the morning of April 9, 2019. She was on an internship at the time of her death.

Her killer and childhood friend was Jomo Kenyatta University computer science graduate Naftali Kinuthia, who hacked her twice on the head with an axe in broad daylight outside the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret at around 10am.

Kinuthia had tried to flee the scene but angry boda boda riders, who witnessed the incident, chased him and pelted him with stones before he was rescued by police officers from the MTRH police patrol station.

The riders had nearly lynched him and even tried to set him on fire. He suffered severe burns and was rushed to MTRH where he was treated under tight security by police officers from Naiberi Police Station.

On that fateful Tuesday, Kinuthia had travelled from Thika, where he worked, to Eldoret town for a surprise birthday visit to her lon-g-time partner. 

It was the eve of her birthday and she had invited friends to celebrate with her. But Kinuthia, her estranged boyfriend, was not among the invited friends.

Things had turned sour between the two after the victim allegedly rebuffed his advances.

Kinuthia had confessed to the crime, telling an Eldoret court that he was overcome with jealousy when he saw his then girlfriend embracing another man in front of him.

Kinuthia, the first born in his family of four siblings, told the court that he had spent more than Sh200,000 on Wangeci and was bitter that she always ignored him.

“On the fateful morning, I saw my beloved embracing another man. I cannot even recount the moment I decided to pick up the axe from my car, which I had packed near the MTRH emergency room. I was not myself,” the convict had told the court during a hearing session.

Yesterday’s verdict was delivered virtually by Malindi High Court Judge Reuben Githinji, who had earlier found the accused guilty of murder. The judge noted that the accused subjected the deceased to a painful death and, therefore, deserved the death penalty, which has been abolished in Kenya, hence the 40-year sentence.

He said the manner in which the deceased lost her life was brutal and painful, hence the accused deserved a sentence that reflected the gravity of the offense.

“The feelings of the prosecution and the family of the deceased as expressed by lawyer Miroko Ndegwa is that the accused deserves the death sentence. The offense, on the other hand, carries the death penalty, but given the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Francis Muruatetu, the death penalty is not a mandatory sentence. The court has the discretion to impose any other sentence that the suspect deserves,” Justice Githinji ruled.

The verdict followed four years of hearings during which several witnesses, including Wangeci’s close friends, testified that the two had a frosty relationship.

Kinuthia had confessed before the Eldoret High Court to hacking Wangeci to death with an axe, saying it was out of anger after she rejected him for another man despite allegedly “minting money from him”.

He described it as an act of provocation, telling the court that he was overwhelmed by anger, fearing that his childhood friend had betrayed him.

Their love started way back in primary school in Thika town and continued in high school while Wangeci was at Alliance Girls and he was at Nyandarua Boys High School, he said.

The prosecution closed its case in June 2022, with the State presenting more than 10 witnesses, including the mother and two uncles of the slain medical student.

From the beginning of the case, the family and the prosecution had demanded the maximum penalty for murder against Kinuthia.

Through family lawyer Kiroko Ndegwa, they had asked the court to punish Kinuthia severely for his actions.

“This court should give the highest possible sentence in the country. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” Advocate Ndegwa told the court during her closing submissions.

The victim’s lawyer’s sentiments were echoed by prosecutor Norah Limo, who told the court that the accused deserved the maximum sentence for the offense of murder.

“She was an aspiring doctor who was about to graduate but lost her life. We ask the court to impose the maximum sentence of death," the prosecutor told the court.

One of the witnesses, a close friend of Wangeci’s, recounted how the relationship between the two had soured.

The witness told the court that some of the messages the defendant sent to Wangeci were threatening.

She told the court that she had warned Wangeci about the relationship, but the deceased had downplayed the warning.

The court heard that Kinuthia tried to seek the help of Wangeci’s close friend M.A., who had acted as a mediator between them during their relationship turmoil.

Kinuthia had told a packed court how he had allegedly supported his slain lover for her upkeep at the public college and even paid for her birthday parties.

He had told the judge that he was remorseful over the incident, even as he accused his long-time lover of minting a lot of money from him, knowing full well that she was no longer interested in their romantic relationship.

“I regret the death of Ivy because she was innocent. There are so many ways we could have resolved our differences instead of killing her,” Kinuthia said.

In a virtual court session, Justice Githinji ruled that the prosecution had proved the case of murder beyond reasonable doubt.

The judge said the accused used a deadly weapon — an axe — and struck the deceased several times, leaving her with no chance of survival.

“If he did not want to kill her, he would have used his bare fists on her and not the axe,” Justice Githinji said.

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