Anti-femicide protesters march on the streets of Nairobi amid rising cases of femicide in Kenya.
This year, the media has been awash with reports of women being murdered. In both January and December, angry Kenyans took to the streets to march in solidarity and call for an end to the senseless killings, but little has happened to stop the violence.
However, the Cabinet has approved setting up of a presidential working group on femicide. This team is expected to deliver actionable proposals to address femicide within 90 days of its creation.
Nation research has used media reports over the past eleven months to keep track of the killings of women, who the perpetrators are, how they met their death, what the motives were and where progress is in the quest for justice.
In our analysis, we tracked reported murders across the country and found that between January 1 and November 25 this year, 172 women had been murdered.
While there are no up-to-date official statistics on the number of murdered women since the year began, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Eliud Lagat in October said that between August and October 2024, 97 women had been murdered. He also noted that 339 total murders (all genders) had been recorded since the year began, a slight increase from 336 in 2023 during the same period.
Story of Vivian Kajaya - Mystery man and no answers from police
Vivian Kajaya, the 22-year-old student at Mt Kenya University whose body was found dumped in a maize plantation in Kiamunyi, Nakuru County on October 15, 2024.
Vivian Kajaya, at just 22-years-old, was among the victims of femicide this year. Her family remains troubled about the lack of answers over what led to her death.
Eunice Mideva, Ms Kajaya’s mother, says that since she buried her daughter, she has not heard from detectives regarding the status of investigations into her first-born daughter’s murder.
Despite Ms Mideva furnishing detectives pursuing her daughter’s case with a crucial lead, she said, they are yet to arrest her killer, leaving her wondering if she will ever get justice.
She told detectives that days before her death, her daughter met a mystery man at a hospital in Thika where she was a student at Mount Kenya University, before the two proceeded to a shop where he bought a mobile phone. She also told them that the two travelled to Nakuru and visited a hotel in Kiamunyi before her lifeless body was discovered in a maize plantation in the area.
“Since I buried her, I haven't heard anything about my daughter’s case. I'm still wondering if I will ever get justice over her death. I'm sure they left their details at the hospital they visited. I wonder if all the places the two visited had no CCTV. Did they even visit the hotel (in Kiamunyi) and try asking if they knew the man who was with my daughter? I am wondering why there's no breakthrough in the investigations. I strongly feel that I am being discriminated against for my background and lack of social status,” she lamented.
Her concerns are not unique. Many of the murder cases in the country remain cold with perpetrators walking scot free.
The perpetrators
Intimate partners are the leading perpetrators in cases where those who committed the murder of women are known.
While 82 of the cases did not have any known perpetrator, 90 of them were known, with husbands and boyfriends among the top suspects.
Of these, husbands accounted for 28 murders, boyfriends (19), parents (15), relatives (16), children (four) while ex-partners accounted for three of the cases.
A report recently released by UN Women showed that 85,000 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2023, most of them by intimate partners or relatives. This meant that 140 women and girls were killed daily with data showing that a woman or girl was killed every ten minutes.
Story of Eileen Cherotich - Killed by lover after argument
The late Eileen Cherotich was a student at Rift Valley National Polytechnic in Nakuru.
Eileen Cherotich is one such victim who was killed by a person known to her. While coming from a night out with friends, she was thrown out of a moving vehicle by a man her friends say she was in a relationship with.
The man, only identified as Erick, pushed her out of the car after an argument, leaving her with serious injuries that claimed her life hours later.
Her family is frustrated. Relatives say they have made countless visits to police stations to follow up on investigations but there seems to be no progress.
However, according to Nakuru West Sub-County Directorate of Criminal investigation Charles Kamau, two people who were with Ms Cherotich that night are helping detectives with the investigation.
They were initially arrested but later released for lack of evidence. However, he added, the main suspect is still at large.
“He is yet to be arrested after committing the heinous crime...he went into hiding. We later traced him to Nairobi. We laid our traps but after noting that he was being traced, he moved to Nyahururu. His days are numbered, we will get him,” said Mr Kamau.
Ms Cherotich’s cousin Gideon Kipkemoi says the family has left it all to God’s will.
“I was a regular visitor at the station following up on the case, but every day I could get negative feedback...We just leave it to God,” he said.
Motive
The motive of most murder cases remain a mystery, especially in instances where there is no known perpetrator.
Of the 172 cases documented this year, 100 of the murders had no clear motives. In 32 cases, domestic disputes were what led to the death, 9 were as a result of robbery with violence while 4 were due to land disputes.
Disputes between couples such as accusations of cheating accounted for six of the deaths while love triangle disputes accounted for seven murders.
Other motives that led to the death of women include accusations of engaging in witchcraft. For instance, a 65-year-old woman from Kilifi killed on March 21 was assaulted alongside a 70-year-old woman over witchcraft claims and left for dead. The latter sustained serious injuries while the former was found killed and her body dumped in a thicket.
Killed by their parents
There are also cases of young girls killed by their parents - with two mothers killing their children in order to marry their lovers. Sheila Chepkemoi and her brother Salim Kipkemoi were just eight and six years old respectively when their mother Brenda Cheptoo killed them and buried them in a shallow grave on July 12 hoping that she would finally be able to marry her lover.
A detective on the case said she had disclosed that she felt that the two children were hindering her from getting married to her lover.
Another mother also took the life of her two children aged 9 and 12 in Bomet. Vicky Chirchir was arrested alongside her lover after it was discovered they had killed the children and buried them in a shallow grave at their home in Sotik.
How they met their death
The manner in which women met their deaths shows that one in two women were either hacked or stabbed. Bodies were also found with missing body parts such as genitalia, fingers, breasts and heads, raising concern that their deaths could be as a result of cultic killings.
Our analysis also shows that some women, especially those killed by intimate partners, were abused either physically or sexually prior to their death. Others were subjected to the most brutal murders that involved more than one method being used. For example, some women were not only assaulted, they were also stabbed, strangled or burnt. Some were poisoned while others were doused with acid.
Ms Kajaya is one such victim. She was not only strangled but also been sexually assaulted, according to a post-mortem report.
Young girls were also defiled with some of them such as five-year-old Alice Ayuma being subjected to a painful death where she was not only hit on the head, but also had stab wounds on her skull and genitalia.
A post-mortem showed she was also defiled by Ezekiel Sakwa Mwangi, a 19-year-old who confessed to the murders of more than four women in Nakuru County this year. Mr Sakwa was arraigned and charged with the murder of three other women namely Virginia Njeri Mwangi, 46, Florence Mueni Mwalimu, 34, and Vellah Moraa Mogambi, 28.
Additional reporting by Mercy Koskei
