Naftaly Kinuthia, the man who hacked down a Moi Eldoret medical student, Ivy Wangechi to death on April 9th, 2019, has finally been pronounced guilty by Eldoret’s High Court judge, Reuben Githinji.
Judge Githinji noted that the defendant had premeditated the murder and that was why he used a lethal weapon -an axe- leaving her with minimal chances of survival.
“If he did not want to kill her, he would have used bare fist on her and not the axe” Githinji explained.
Claims of provocation by Kinuthia who was following the proceedings Virtually from the Eldoret GK prisons were strongly rejected by the Judge.
The judge noted that the axe used to kill Wangechi which had a metal handle was new and sharpened using a grinder. Kinuthia on the other hand claimed that the axe he used had been in the car for security purposes.
“I saw the axe in court, and it is the kind used in rural areas to split firewood and trees. It is not like the one reasonable people carry for security” the judge said.
Kinuthia told the court that he had used Sh 200,000 on Ivy and that he was angered that Ivy always ignored him.
The 33-year-old man told the court that Ivy had contacted him asking for 28,000 to hold her birthday celebrations to which Kinuthia sent 14,000 promising to send the balance on the birthday day.
On a dreadful day, Kinuthia claimed that he had traveled to Eldoret to personally wish Ivy a happy birthday since she had blocked all contacts from him.
He continued to explain that he saw the medical student near the Hostel and decided to go and meet her, Wangechi who was astonished at seeing him informed him that her new boyfriend would take care of everything.
Kinuthia who was disappointed on hearing that went back to his car and made a decision to never talk to Wangechi again.
His temper flared when he looked back to the deceased hugging and holding hands with a male friend around 50 meters away.
”At that point, I lost control and was too angry because of what was happening before me. I wasn’t myself again and can’t tell how I decided to pick the axe and attack her” he said.
The judgment session turned emotional with judges representing the deceased breaking into tears after the sentence was announced.
Noticeably, Nancy Kinuthia who is Kinuthia’s mum was the only person who showed up to show support to her son.