Ezra Kipkorir Koech, a fourth-year engineering student at Dedan Kimathi University was lynched by Laikipia University students after he fatally stabbed a female Laikipia University student
On Friday, the Nyahururu County Referral Hospital announced that Koech had succumbed to injuries inflicted by a mob after he attacked Gertrude Chepkoech, a first-year student at the Univesity.
“He succumbed to serious head injuries he sustained from the beating…The injuries were very severe,” said hospital administrator Thomas Kiptoo.
According to Mr. Kiptoo, the deceased had a severe slash on the throat and another on the stomach, both of which were self-inflicted, according to witnesses.
His remains, according to Mary Kiema, the Nyahururu Sub County Police Commander, are in the mortuary and have been booked as unknown.
“We are still waiting for family members to show up as none has come,” she said.
Chepkoech was stabbed numerous times after being attacked by Koech, who was supposedly her roommate’s lover. Following the terrible deed, Koech allegedly turned the knife on himself in an effort to kill himself as a lynch mob swarmed the crime scene.
The man, who had stabbed himself in the stomach, was, however, rescued by the police and rushed to Nyahururu County referral hospital for medical attention.
According to Lucy Nakiridi, a cleaner at the private hostel where the deceased lived, they were alerted by the screams from the girl’s room.
However, upon rushing to the scene they found the girl’s lifeless body with deep cuts.
According to the witness, the culprit from Nakuru was prohibited from entering the premises after his girlfriends accused him of reportedly forcing himself into their room. According to reports, Koech discovered the deceased alone in the room. His sweetheart had gone away for examinations.
This year alone, at least 85 women have been killed countrywide under different circumstances. According to data emanating from media reports, the victims range from as young as four years to as old as 70 years.
The majority of the victims were aged between 21 and 30 years — at the prime of their lives. To put the number—85—of women killed this year to perspective, the victims can fill six 14-seater matatus! Femicide represents the most extreme form of violence against women.
Data from a report by Code For Africa indicates that 49 percent of the victims were killed by their partners, including boyfriends, husbands, and former lovers. The rest— 51 percent—were killed by criminal gangs and unknown people.
An average of 137 women across the world are killed by a partner or a family member daily, with an average of five women every 60 minutes according to a 2018 report by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The report also showed that 87,000 women were killed intentionally in 2017, with 30,000 of these killings dying at the hands of their current or former partners. It shows women are most at risk in their own homes.
UNODC also indicated that Kenya was among the countries with the highest cases of female homicides.
