Eldoret:Naftali Kinuthia Who Murdered Moi University Student Found Guilty

Naftali Kinuthia 33, the prime suspect in the brutal murder of Moi university medical student three years ago will know his fate in November, 22 Justice Stephen Githinji ruled Thursday.

While delivering his ruling virtually in his new work station in Malindi, the Judge said that he will give the accused a chance to mitigate before he decides which punishment to give him over the
killing of Ivy Wangeci 25, who was a final year medical student on the
fateful April 9, 2019

This was after he ruled that the prosecution had adduced enough
evidence linking the accused to the murder of the slain medical
student in an incident that occurred at 10am outside Moi teaching and
Referral Hospital in Eldoret.

“The prosecution has proven the case of murder against the accused
beyond reasonable doubts and I will decide on his fate on November 22
after hearing his mitigation,” ruled Justice Githinji.

In his defence, Kinuthia, a computer science graduate of Jomo Kenyatta
University confessed how he hacked his girlfriend to death in broad
daylight terming his action as provocation.

He admitted to killing his girl-friend with an axe for what he called
being overwhelmed by anger in fear that his childhood friend had
betrayed him.

Kinuthia narrated to the packed court how he used to support his slain
lover for her upkeep while at the public institution of higher
learning and even financing her birthday parties.

On the fateful day in April 2019, he said that he travelled from Thika
where he was working to Eldoret for what would have been a surprise
visit to her longtime partner on her birthday.

In a strange twist of event, things turned sour between the two after
the victim allegedly turned down his advances, prompting him to hack
her to death.

“On the fateful day in the morning, I left for a few metres and on
turning back, I saw my lover hugging another man, ‘I cannot even tell
the moment that I decided to pick the axe from my car that I had
packed near the Emergency department of MTRH. I was not myself,”
recounted Kinuthia.

He had told the Judge that he was remorseful over the incident even
as he accused his longtime lover of minting a lot of money from him
knowing very well that she was no longer interested in their romantic
relationship.

“I regret the death of Ivy as she was innocent. There are so many ways
we could have resolved our differences instead of killing her,” said
Kinuthia.

The court was further told how the accused threatened the deceased
through text messages about a month before she made her death in his
hands.

A close friend of the slain student coded MC in his testimony before
Justice Githinji said that Kinuthia was nagging her friend and tried
wooing her by buying her gifts and spending money on her.

According to MC, the accused wanted a relationship but Wangeci was not
interested in a romantic relationship with him.

The witness stated that it reached a point where Kinuthia wanted
compensation of all the money he had spent on longtime lover after she
refused to yield to his relationship demands.

She told the court that Kinuthia had claimed that he had spent around
sh 200,000 on Wangeci and that he wanted a refund..

“Kinuthia started sending threatening messages to me saying he had
spent time on Ivy and he was going to do something stupid in revenge
and that it could end in death. He said that no coin of his would go
to waste,” she testified.

The witness told the court that Wangeci informed her that Kinuthia had
showed up at the hostel and asked her to get into his car so they
could talk, but she turned down the offer due to fear for her life.

She (deceased) instead rushed to her hostel and did not get back to
him as requested.

The witness further dispelled allegations that Wangeci was in
relationship with the key suspect saying that the two were only
childhood friends and had no other relationship.

To the best of my knowledge the two were only friends and were never
in a romantic relationship as claimed by the accused,” said MC.

The prosecution closed its case in June 2022 with the State presenting
more than 10 witnesses among them the mother and two uncles of the
slain medical student.

Kinuthia denied the murder charge when he was arraigned before Eldoret
Court three years ago.

He has been remanded at the Eldoret GK remand prison since his arrest.