• On Saturday, Kenyans led by women groups poured onto the streets of Nairobi and other urban centres to call for action against the series of murders.
• But despite the huge media coverage the killings and the protests received, the country’s top leadership is yet to speak about the troubling trend.
Image: RUTH AURA
President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua are yet to break their silence as the country tries to come to terms with a surge in femicide cases in the country.
On Saturday, Kenyans led by women groups poured onto the streets of Nairobi and other urban centres to call for action against the series of murders whose latest victim, Rita Waeni, was decapitated and dismembered after her murder.
Using the hashtag #EndFemicide, celebrities and political leaders joined the peaceful protests with 'stop killing women' as the rallying message on T-shirts and placards against the senseless killings that have sparked outrage in the country.
But despite the huge media coverage of the killings and the protests received, the country’s top leadership is yet to speak about the troubling trend that is fast claiming the lives of daughters and mothers with reckless abandon.
And even as the country was still reeling from the grief accompanying Waeni’s gruesome murder at an apartment in Roysambu, the country woke up to yet another murder of a young girl in Kiambu.
The body of the 20-year-old who went missing two weeks ago was found at Kinare forest in Kiambu, half-naked.
Lari OCPD Adamson Furaha said investigations have been launched but preliminary findings indicated that the girl was possibly raped and killed elsewhere and her body dumped in the forest.
"We have started investigations to establish what happened, whether she was raped, how she was killed and how the body was brought to the area. Investigations will shed more light," he said.
The girl went missing after she had been sent to buy sugar two weeks ago at a nearby shop.
As of now, Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria is arguably the senior-most government official who has spoken up against the unbecoming criminal activities and vowed a crackdown on the culprits.
“The government is very concerned about growing cases of crime and murders, mostly targeted at women in short-term rental spaces. Whereas most of these spaces are termed as Airbnb, they are not transacted through the Airbnb platform and thus there is no Know Your Customer (KYC) data collected, obviously a major security exposure,” he said.
“The government will crack down on people offering such services outside the Airbnb or other authorised and licensed platforms.”
Kuria’s warning follows the murder of Waeni and Starlet Wahu in separate Airbnb apartments in Roysambu and South B respectively less than two weeks apart.
Wahu, 26, was found dead in the room she had booked with a man on the night of January 3. She had been stabbed in her thigh with autopsy results indicating she bled to death. A man is in custody as the key murder suspect.
Waeni, 20, was killed and dismembered in an Airbnb room in Roysambu on January 14.Two men are in custody over her murder.