The hearing of a murder case against Naftali Njami Kinuthia finally kicked off on Thursday, July 8. The defendant was the prime suspect in the brutal murder of Moi University medical student Ivy Wangeci.
This was after five failed attempts to have the case open by the prosecution.
Winfred Waithera, a mother with a heavy heart, narrated to an attentive court the virtues upheld by her late daughter. Ivy Wangechi was her mother’s firstborn daughter, hailing from compact family of three.
Winfred described Ivy as a hardworking, calm and soft-spoken individual. She had never raised her voice to either her mother or siblings, even in disagreements.
Being self-driven and focused, Ivy was on the verge of graduating from medical school. Her emotional mother recounted precious moments with her and decried that she was taken from the world in the most undeserving manner.
She also vehemently refuted claims that Kinuthia was her boyfriend. On the contrary, she claimed to only know the accused as a former schoolmate of Ivy’s from Joyland Academy in years prior. Ivy had never introduced any man to her family.
Winfred was accompanied to court by 5 witnesses who also testified to. Each of them expressed their memories of the deceased. The witness, including Ivy’s colleagues, gave their accounts of her final moments with them to the keen Eldoret High Court.
Wangechi’s classmate, a Dr Andrew Koinange, was walking by her side on that fateful day that would end in her demise. Koinange recounted how the accused violently attacked Wangechi with an axe.
He further told the court that he and Ivy were walking making their way to class from the campus hostels when they decided to get food from a cafe next to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). It is then that a man wielding a machete appeared, pursuing them from behind. They both took to their feet but unfortunately, Ivy tripped and fell behind. The man then hacked her twice, fatally.
Another witness, Jackson Ng’etich, explained to the court how he saw the whole incident unfold right before his eyes. He promptly tried to intervene but the accused swung the weapon towards him. Afterwards, Kinuthia was encompassed by Boda Boda riders who managed to contain him.
Ivy’s cause of death was concluded to be hypovolemic shock due to excessive bleeding, as clarified by Dr Benson Macharia, a pathologist attached to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH)
The hearing was adjourned to July 22. As the trial gains traction, It is expected that more witnesses will turn up to share their stories of her.
