• Body taken to medical anatomy laboratory for viewing by colleagues and friends and a short prayer service
• The killer, who is hospitalised, told police he killed her because she refused to love him
The body of butchered Moi University medical student Ivy Wangechi has been transferred from Eldoret to Kiambu for burial.
Before it left Eldoret, the body was taken to the nearby medical anatomy laboratory department for short prayers, viewing by colleagues and friends and a small prayer service.
Her parents Mr and Mrs Kingori were not present as they had remained in Nairobi to receive the body. It will be taken to Kenyatta Funeral Home in Kiambu county.
Naftali Njahi Kinuthia, the man who killed Wangechi using an axe and a knife, was still being held at the hospital yesterday for treatment as police wait to charge him in court.
The postmortem was carried out by pathologists led by Dr Benson Macharia. Family members barred the media for 30 minutes during viewing and a prayer service.
Private security guards and police officers were deployed at the gates to keep away the media.
“We have been told by the family that they are not interested in publicity but want to mourn and bury their daughter in peace," a police officer said.
The Dean of Moi University College of Health Sciences Prof Lukoye Atwoli eulogised Wangeci as a brilliant doctor whose life was cut short when she was about to graduate.
“We have never witnessed such an incident and we are saddened that it happened to Wangechi. It's sad,” Dr Lukoye.
He said the suspect involved should face the full force of the law. He said Wangechi had never been involved in indiscipline during the six years she has been at the college.
Some relatives and colleagues were overwhelmed by emotion as the body was being loaded into the hearse for her final journey to Kiambu ahead of burial.
Eldoret East DCI Officer Ali Kingi said they are waiting for the suspect to be discharged from the hospital before they record his statement ahead of his arraignment in the High Court in Eldoret for on a murder charge.
Kinuthia has told the police that he killed Wangechi after she refused to love him.
(Edited by V. Graham)