Kenya has a femicide problem - it's time we put an end to the madness

During the first week of January, Kenyans were shocked to learn of the horrific killing of popular socialite Starlet Wahu after falling into what has now been revealed as a trap set by murder suspect John Matara.

Soon after Wahu's death rattled the internet, everyone rushed to their mobile devices to let their jingoistic thoughts known - while some commiserated with the late socialite's family, many seemed to place the blame squarely on the luckless young woman for 'inviting' her own death.

According to a worryingly huge constituency of pontificators, Starlet Wahu was a greed-driven individual who met her bloody fate in pursuit of material glory unbeknownst to her that the man she was intending to milk financially was actually a guileful machinator.

After the John Matara news started ricocheting off all corners of the Kenyan internet, more women came forward - some covertly - to accuse the same man of robbing and attempting to kill them in past instances, and this did not help matters either.

A lot of people, especially men, appeared to brush off these women's valid concerns by claiming that they had been driven to Matara's arms by the promise of financial compensation and that they deserved whatever befell them for their inclination to trade their bodies to every seemingly charming suitor.

Various sections of the local media even branded Wahu a 'high-end escort', further buttressing the mentality that women of her type deserved to die by the sword, after supposedly living a life of milking men for their wallets.

Truth is - occupation aside, no woman deserves to be murdered simply because she agreed to a few drinks, nyama choma and a sleepover at any city establishment.

Even before Wahu's death had left the minds of Kenyans, yet another woman was found killed and dismembered at yet another Airbnb rental along TRM Drive, Thika Road.

As usual, male chauvinists flooded the internet with their hot takes, parroting the same old narrative that suggests that these women deserve no mercy due to their supposed greed and what many might foolishly interpret as loose morals.

Online, especially on X, the bigotry got even worse - pitting men and women against each other.

As the conversation got heated and started to veer off, popular feminist and gender-based-violence crusader Njeri Migwi said, "Everyone has an unalienable right to life and NOT be killed. We will NOT be debating the sanctity of life. Your morals or lack of them dont dictate why a woman should be killed. Starlet Wahu should be here. The End. Rest in Power Starlet!"

And even after the TRM Drive woman was found brutally murdered and with some body parts missing, many more prominent women - and men - once again went online to remind the bigots of the sanctity of life and the dangers young women keep facing in Kenya - whether in rented Airbnbs or even in their own matrimonial homes.

Publisher and podcaster Wayua Muli said: "Let’s just STOP blaming AirBnBs for femicide. Neither the hosts nor the app are responsible for the murders of women who use them.

"The buck stops with the men who CHOOSE to kill these women, and all who fuel this rabid misogyny!"

On the same day a woman was killed and dismembered in Roysambu, yet another young woman in Magarini, Kilifi County, was found murdered in her one-bedroomed rented house. She used to live wiith her lover who is now on the run.

No matter the circumstances, women continue to be wantonly killed every day in all parts of the country - by their husbands, by their ex-lovers, by jilted suitors, by strangers they met online, by their neighbours and by men who vowed to love them for the rest of their lives.

X user Carlton Kitheka caused a controversy when he tweeted: "I honestly think no amount of activism will stop femicide. It's now up to the ladies to put their safety first, it's sad it has come to this but it might be the only feasible solution..."

It's imperative for Carlton to remember that, when Ivy Wangeci was brutally murdered by her jilted lover, she was in Eldoret - and he was in Thika.

Naftali Kinuthia drove for hundreds of kilometres to murder a woman he was entitled to - a woman he claimed had spent too much of his money, with no romantic returns. He's now serving 40 years behind bars.

"I regret the death of Ivy because she was innocent. There are so many ways we could have resolved our differences instead of killing her," a remorseful Kinuthia told a packed court.

Just like Kinuthia, there are so many ways the men killing women in Airbnbs and in their homes and at their workplaces could resolve their differences - but they choose to kill, instead.

Mental health advocate and podcaster Onyango Otieno also failed to see the sense in the systemization of violence against women, saying, "The manner in which boys and men abuse women and girls keeps me up at night. The way men are comfortable and sometimes looking forward to violate women’s bodies with such unbridled animosity. The way this violence has been systemized. There is a deep devilish bestiality about it."

A woman's security is not her own concern, alone. It's the society's concern - everyone must ensure that women are safe and alive and it doesn't matter what they do, who they do it with, who they choose to meet or where they spend the night.

The notion that a woman must die for being at the wrong place at the wrong time has hugely amplified femicide in Kenya, and many are getting seriously perturbed by the normalisation.

Njeri Migwi, who has, for years, dealt with women getting beaten up and/or murdered in their own homes by their own husbands and partners, still felt the need to keep going.

"An agreement to have sex is NEVER an endorsement to be murdered. Stop murdering women and using sex as an excuse. Stop telling women to be safe when all our lives we live by being hyper vigilant. This narrative needs to end. Hold men accountable!" she tweeted.

In an article titled 'Call It By It's Name: Femicide' Australian website InDaily wrote about the murderous crisis happening Down Under just as it is in Kenya.

"It’s time to face a hard truth: Women in this country are more likely to be murdered by a man they know," the author wrote.

"It's not murderous monsters hiding in dark alleyways preying on women “brazen” enough to walk alone at night. It’s the men they have loved, the men they have cared for. You see, women aren’t safe anywhere in Australia. Especially not in their own homes..."

The UNDP Gender Social Norms Index, which quantifies global bias against women found in 2023, that nine out of 10 men and women hold biases against women.

Bias manifests into violence. And if we don’t change attitudes towards women, we will continue to bury them. Unfortunately.