Femicide 2025: A year of bloodshed, taskforces and broken promises
Murdered student Seth Nyakio, a victim of femicide.
What you need to know:
- Lucy Njeri’s life changed forever when her 23-year-old daughter, Seth Nyakio, was strangled to death in her Thika home. More than a year later, the prime suspect remains free, reflecting a broader crisis where families grieve without justice as femicide cases rise across Kenya.
- New data shows hundreds of women are being killed in Kenya, mostly by current or former intimate partners, often in their own homes. Young women aged 18 to 35 face the greatest risk, while weak investigations and delayed prosecutions deepen public outrage.
- As the government forms taskforces, activists turn to courts, community campaigns, and even art exhibitions to demand accountability.
Lucy Njeri no longer sleeps through the night. When darkness falls, so do the tears—and with them, the nightmares of her daughter's final moments.
On October 14, 2024, Seth Nyakio, a 23-year-old Zetech University graduate, was found strangled in her home in Thika's Biafra area. She was running two successful businesses. She was economically independent. And she was Lucy Njeri's only child.
"It has affected my productivity at work and I do not know if I will ever be able to work well again," says Njeri, a nominated member of the Kirinyaga County Assembly. "I have become a different person—fragile and always fearful. I used to be a bold woman who spoke about gender-based violence, but not anymore. I cry a lot at night. Getting sleep has been difficult."
More than a year later, the man police identified as the prime suspect—a former boyfriend—remains free. No arrest has been made.
"I believe if the government was serious about apprehending the suspect, it could," Njeri says, her voice heavy with frustration. "I feel like there are people in government shielding him. The DCI should put his picture out there so that members of the public can help us."
Njeri is not alone in her grief, nor in her anger. Across Kenya, parents are burying daughters whose lives were cut short by men who claimed to love them.
A crisis in numbers
Data from the National Police Service and National Crime Research Centre paints a grim picture: between January and March 2025 alone, 129 women were killed in Kenya—43 in January, 42 in February, and 44 in March. The Rift Valley, Eastern, and Western regions recorded the highest deaths.
The perpetrators are overwhelmingly male. Men were responsible for 85 per cent of the killings, while women accounted for 10 per cent. Half of the murders were linked to domestic disputes. In total, Kenya lost 579 women to femicide during this period.
The Silencing Women Project, an initiative by Africa Uncensored documenting femicide in Kenya, reveals that the methods of murder have grown more intimate and more brutal. Sexual assault featured in seven per cent of cases, while hacking incidents accounted for six per cent. The weapons of choice are often household items—tools within arm's reach, turned deadly.
Young women bear the greatest risk. Those aged 18 to 35 account for more than half of all victims. Their killers mirror them in age: 66 per cent of perpetrators presented in court between 2016 and 2024 were men between 18 and 35 years old.
While Nairobi remains the leading county for femicide, Kisii, Kitui, Meru, and Nyeri have emerged among the top ten affected areas. A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime confirms what the data suggests: current and former intimate partners are the most likely perpetrators, accounting for an average of 55 per cent of all intimate partner and family-related killings.
At the Nairobi Women's Hospital Gender Violence Recovery Centre, the crisis arrives daily—approximately 4,000 gender-based violence cases every month. "It is a crisis and something definitely needs to be done," says Dr Sam Thenya, the hospital's Chief Executive Officer. "The economic burden of GBV is enormous. We must speak against this vice. These are our daughters, wives, sisters, and mothers."
Government responds
In January 2025, amid mounting public outcry, President William Ruto established a taskforce to investigate the surge in gender-based violence and femicide. Through a special gazette notice, he appointed former Deputy Chief Justice Dr Nancy Barasa to lead the 34-member team.
The taskforce's mandate included assessing existing policies, identifying gaps in prevention, response, investigations, prosecution, data management, and survivor support systems, and recommending measures to strengthen protections.
"There are existing gaps in prevention, response, investigations, prosecution, data management, and survivor support systems in GBV and femicide cases," the gazette notice read. "Such egregious violations pose a threat to our national security as well as strain the nation's social fabric."
The team has since completed its work, conducting public participation forums across the country to collect views from Kenyans. The report is now ready for handover to the President.
Dr Barasa has been clear about one conclusion: femicide must be treated as a distinct crime. "We insist that femicide—characterised by persistent gender discrimination and occurring overwhelmingly in domestic settings—requires separate legal recognition," she says.
Mobilising on multiple fronts
While awaiting the taskforce report, various stakeholders have launched their own interventions.
UN Women has led initiatives to prevent femicide and gender-based violence, including specialised training for police personnel. Officers are taught to recognise signs of potential femicide, understand the unique challenges women face, and adopt a victim-centred approach to law enforcement. More than 600 officers across the National Police Service and National Transport and Safety Authority have undergone training.
Through partnerships with five civil society organisations, UN Women has facilitated psychosocial support for approximately 40,000 survivors and provided legal aid to about 1,000.
"The rising cases of gender-based violence, with increased killings of women and girls, require strong whole-of-society approaches to safeguard their safety, justice, and protection," says Mary Wanjiru, Team Lead for Ending Violence against Women and Girls at UN Women Kenya.
Women Members of Parliament have taken the fight to the grassroots. Under the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (Kewopa), they are spearheading a national campaign dubbed "Komesha Dhuluma"—Swahili for "end violence."
Read: ‘Women’s bodies are the battlefield’: Survivors recount digital misogyny during femicide protests
"Each female MP has localised the initiative through community sensitisation and engagement forums tailored to the unique needs of their constituencies," says Leah Sankaire, Kewopa chairperson and Kajiado woman rep. "The campaign aims to raise awareness, amplify survivor voices, influence policy change, and foster a culture of respect and equality."
The government has allocated Sh100 million to fund the initiative. Working alongside women's rights organisations and law enforcement agencies, the campaign aims to directly engage over 100,000 women, men, youth, and persons with disabilities at constituency level, while reaching more than 10 million Kenyans through media outreach.
Likoni MP Mishi Mboko says the campaign is engaging men at the village level. "GBV is not a women's issue but a matter that cuts across all genders, including young boys who fall victim to sodomy," she says. "We are appealing to all Kenyans to join this campaign. It has already shown impressive results by creating robust awareness at the grassroots."
Art as witness
Some activists have turned to art to shake the public conscience. Njeri Migwi, the executive director of Usikimye, has created an initiative called Maskani—Swahili for dwelling or home. It is a word that should evoke rest, laughter, and safety. For too many women, it has become synonymous with crime scenes.
"Research indicates 72 per cent of murders occur in the home, and 60 to 70 per cent of victims are killed by intimate partners or family members," Migwi explains. "The Maskani initiative was born out of the pain of seeing perpetrators of femicide going scot-free. We thought of using art showing statistics and cases to make people understand. It is a call for help and a way of communicating that something has to be done."
Chris Wanyande of Creative Garage says the exhibition confronts Kenyans with their reality. "This is a raw, unfiltered way for us to see our reality—a space to remind us that our rights and freedoms rely on somebody's whims and emotions," he says. "When you see the writings and statistics in the exhibitions, it becomes very easy to understand. It dawns on people what is really happening in society."
Akinyi Odera of the Heinrich Foundation, which has supported Maskani, says the initiative serves as both commemoration and a call to action. "The Maskani initiative is calling for responsibility from duty bearers—the police, judiciary, and hospitals," she says. "It should not be business as usual."
The campaign has already held awareness events in Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, and Mombasa counties.
Institutional reforms
Gender and Culture Cabinet Secretary Hanna Wendot Cheptumo outlines the government's multi-pronged approach. Twelve specialised GBV courts have been established to expedite justice for survivors. Rolled out under the Judiciary's SGBV Strategy, the courts are now operational in hotspot areas including Mombasa, Siaya, and Kisumu counties.
The 2024/25 Administration of Justice in Kenya Annual Report by the National Commission on the Administration of Justice shows that Kenyan courts recorded 31,460 cases of sexual and gender-based violence—a slight drop from 32,909 cases the previous year.
The CS reveals that the Protection Against Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill, 2025 is in the works, alongside digitisation of GBV case handling, introduction of survivor-centred protocols, and capacity building for frontline officers, prosecutors, and investigators.
"My ministry gives unwavering commitment to work in partnership to make Kenya safer for women and children, and by extension, for men too," says Cheptumo. "Together, we must build a society rooted in dignity, justice, and accountability."
The long wait for justice
According to the Africa Data Hub, a regional network of data organisations that traces femicide through newspaper reports, at least 500 women and girls have been murdered in Kenya since 2016. The organisation acknowledges its data likely undercounts the true toll.
"The cases are not isolated," the Africa Data Hub notes. "Instead, they reveal recurring patterns, indicating a deeper and more systemic issue."
As 2025 draws to a close, women's rights activists are demanding the immediate release of the GBV taskforce report. Frustration is mounting over delays in both the release and implementation of recommendations. Back in Kirinyaga, Lucy Njeri supports calls for special courts to handle femicide cases.
"These are not just normal cases and should therefore be treated differently," she says. "Through such courts, victims and survivors of femicide will be able to get the elusive justice that they so badly need."
For Njeri, justice remains elusive. The man suspected of strangling her only daughter still walks free. The nightmares continue. And somewhere in Kenya, another mother waits for a phone call she prays will never come.
