Femicide Murders That Made Headlines In 2024 & Led To Protests

2024 was the year that saw the term 'femicide' take the national limelight. Every 10 minutes, partners and family members killed a woman intentionally in 2023, according to UN Women.

Gender-related killings (femicide/feminicide) are the most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls. The murders this year in Kenya led to two protests against the vice, both at different corners of the year, in January and December.

Viral Tea takes a look at some of the femicide cases that made headlines, two of which occurred in the space of one week:

Starlet Wahu

Police on Friday, January 5 attached to Industrial Area Police Station arrested a middle-aged man suspected to have killed a 24-year-old woman identified as Starlet Wahu Mwangi, the younger sister of Prophet Victor Kanyari, in an Airbnb apartment in South B, Nairobi.

CCTV footage showed the man in the company of the Instagram influencer who was wearing a short red dress, walking alongside the man from the apartment's lift and checking into the apartment. 

Police officers then responded to a distress call coming from the building's manager informing them that a murder had taken place inside the apartment. Upon arrival, police found that the house was locked from outside, prompting the officers to force their way in by breaking the locks.

The arrest of the man, John Matara, prompted a series of women to come out and confess how Matara sexually assaulted and robbed his victims of their money from their mobile and bank accounts.

As several women came out to record statements accusing him of committing the crimes, media reports revealed how Matara crafted a small team of men and women who terrorised men seeking sexual favours in suburbs such as Roysambu and beyond.

Rita Waeni

Rita Waeni, a 20-year-old student at the Jomo Kenyatta Univerity of Science and Technology (JKUAT) was murdered and dismembered in a short-stay apartment in Roysambu, Nairobi, on January 14, one of the most brutal murders imaginable, and occurring a week from reports of Starlet Wahu's murder.

In the killing that shocked the country, the dismembered body was found by the apartment’s caretaker stuffed inside polyethene bags.

Two men were later apprehended by the police following a series of investigations by homicide detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). 

During the investigations, police seized several items including a knife that was suspected to have been used by the suspect to commit the murder.

Waeni's killer who was last captured on CCTV around the residential area remains at large.

3 Eastleigh Family Members

In yet another femicide case, three women including two daughters and their mother of Somali origin were in October brutally murdered after abduction by an assailant suspected to be an Ethiopian.

The trio reportedly disappeared on Monday, October 21 before their bodies were found lying along roads in Parklands, Bahati, and Machakos bearing similar injuries.

A probe conducted by homicide detectives from the DCI into the victims’ phones revealed that on the night of the abduction, the victims’ phones were pinged in Eastleigh for a short time before they proceeded to General Waruingi which is located within Nairobi. 

Detectives believed that the same assailants who dumped the body of one of the victims in Pangani proceeded to Bahati and Parklands estates where the same perpetrators also dumped the bodies of the other family members.

Lang'ata Cemetery Murder

Detectives in Nairobi launched an investigation following the discovery of a severely mutilated body near Lang’ata Cemetery in November. The remains, which consisted primarily of bones, were found dumped at the site, shocking the local community.

Preliminary examinations revealed that the bones appeared to have been boiled, with flesh meticulously removed. “The bones appeared as if they had been cooked because they were very dry, suggesting another human being might have eaten them,” said Lang’ata OCPD Ben Barasa at the time.

However, in a shocking twist, Hashim Dagane Muhumed, the primary suspect in the murders of three women from Eastleigh who was arrested in connection to the crimes, was treated as a person of interest and a suspect in the Lang’ata case as well.

DCI revealed that preliminary evidence from CCTV footage at various locations in Nairobi, including a major supermarket, captured Dagane with a woman believed to have disappeared right after.

"While following up on crucial exhibits recovered at the scene, the detectives proceeded to a Quickmart supermarket within the city where it was established that the victim of the murder most foul was a lady who was captured by CCTV cameras while shopping on 29/10/2024," stated DCI.

Further, it was established that once done with her shopping, the lady proceeded to an apartment in Lavington, where she was yet again captured by the CCTV cameras while entering the said premises. 

Armed with crucial leads, the detectives established that the lady was in the company of Dagane, who was residing in the said apartment where the duo spent time. This is before Dagane was on October 31 captured leaving the apartment carrying two bags suspected to have contained the remains of the victim that were later in the day discovered at Lang'ata cemetery.