Ivy Wangechi murder: Who made us judge and jury?

Why is it that every time a young woman is killed she is castigated and blamed for ‘causing her own death’?

In the era of social media, a section of Kenyans online seem to have been emboldened behind their screens: easily and without a second thought, they type from their keyboards or phones labels such as malaya and sponsor.

Never mind that they may know little or nothing about the subject they are ‘passionately’ bashing. Some even go as far as cheering on those linked to a murder.

What became of humanity? Have we no compassion? Don’t we respect life?

On Tuesday, April 10, 2019, Ivy Wangechi, a 6th year Medicine student at the Moi University, Eldoret was murdered in broad daylight.

Also Read: Uproar at Moi University after student Ivy Wangechi hacked to death

The man behind the killing is said to have come from Nairobi, armed with an axe and a knife. He reportedly lured her out of class, hit her on the head with the axe before slitting her throat.

Another life lost. Details of the man’s motive are yet to be established, but lo and behold, a section of Kenyans online declared themselves judge and jury and found Ivy ‘guilty of causing her own death’.

A presenter on a local radio station even found it fit to turn the murder incident into content for comedy: “She died because she wasn’t loyal. That’s the truth,” he said during his show on Tuesday.

“Ilibidi amChop…..UkiDate dereva atakunyonga na seatbelt. Msee wa butchery atakuchinja,” he added.

The station has since released a statement saying that the presenter’s show has been pulled off air and apologised for his ‘extremely poor taste’.

A local website even went further and published an article with the headline: “Young girls, avoid sponsors, they will infect you with HIV like IVY WANGECHI”

This as another Twitter user posed: “What would you do if somebody infects you with HIV/AIDS knowingly? IVY WANGECHI MOI UNIVERSITY”

It goes on and on and on.

Back in September last year, a similar incident occurred and in predictable fashion, a section of Kenyans online blamed the victim for her death.

The body of Sharon Otieno (a student at Rongo University) who was seven months pregnant at the time, was found with multiple stab wounds in the stomach, back and neck in Homa Bay. Her baby did not survive.

Also Read: Sharon Otieno was raped, stabbed several times: Detectives

One of the comments following her death were that “Sharon Otieno deserved to die for messing around with a sponsor”.

There are countless number of women whose killing may not have been splashed on newspapers, radio or TV, but whose memory is still tainted with crude, insensitive, ignorant and unwarranted statements.

Life must be respected! We are not givers of life and as such as should not have the audacity to celebrate those who kill for whatever reason.