AMBANI: There’s more to Ivy Wangeci’s murder than femicide

What you need to know:

  • Don’t get me wrong. I know we have level minded people out here who deserve to the hallowed title of a feminist.
  • But majority of people masquerading as Feminist do not even understand the meaning of the word.

I found myself in an unusual role of a mediator last Saturday when two female friends got into a full blown argument over the recent violent death of Ivy Wangechi who was axed to death by her alleged boyfriend Naftali Kinuthia.

This has been an emotive topic that has aroused mixed feelings from both men and women. The two disagreed on whether Ivy’s murder signalled an increase in femicide.

One friend argued that Ivy’s murder was a case of the increased attacks on women by men as a result of “love”.

My other friend argued the problem is not the man but the whole society and this horrific incident should be a wakeup call on how rotten the society is and how it is a high time we include the boy child in conversations rather than making it a man versus woman issue.

VOLATILE TOPICS

A young girl with a promising future just lost her life, but all the conversations dominating online chats are those made by some clueless fellows who only want to appear intelligent by appearing to make a point on an ongoing volatile topics.

Don’t get me wrong. I know we have level minded people out here who deserve to the hallowed title of a feminist. But majority of people masquerading as Feminist do not even understand the meaning of the word.

Nobody deserves for their life to be ended and in such an inhumane way. Our forefathers must be turning in their graves.

They must be asking themselves on where they might have gone wrong. I mean did they not show us how they solved conflict especially when it involved a woman or a man.

Men would face each other in a fight until one of them surrenders for having been overpowered. The looser would probably go and lick his wounds elsewhere after being forbidden from making any contact with the other man’s woman.

Why have men and women turned against each other in this digital age where we are supposed to be more advance.

Between January 1, 2019 and April 13, 2019 only, 40 women have been murdered, this is according to data from Counting Dead Women Kenya.

Figures that have made subjective feminists spam social media timelines with opinions that sometimes lack objectivity.

An Economic survey done by the Kenya Bureau of Standards in 2018 shows there has been a steady rise in the number of murders over the last three years.

Homicides have steadily increased by five percent from 2,648 in 2015 to 2,774, after dropping by a quarter in 2014.

The number of people reported for committing homicide increased by six percent to 2,240 people in 2017 from 2,112 in 2016.

The Kenya Mental Health Policy (2015-2030), states that about 40 per cent of inpatients in the country’s health facilities suffer from mental disorders.

Half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14, but most cases go undetected and untreated.

These figures are frightening to say the least.

One case that also captured the attention of the nation was that of 24-year-old woman Ruth Wanjiku Kamande who stabbed her boyfriend Mr Mohammed 25 times with a kitchen knife.

In her defence, she told the court that she was acting on self-defence. She claimed that he was the one who attacked her first resulting to her having to defend herself.

She added thatMr Mohammed overpowered her and sat on her but she managed to take away the knife and stabbed him.

Is it a high time that we stopped taking sides and pointing accusing fingers at each other where the women gang up on one side with the men on the other side, and come together to a mutual ground so as to achieve a united goal that will have a positive impact on the young generation.

The world is changing very fast and the late Ms Ivy and Mr Kinuthia represent a generation that needs all of us to join forces so as to get to the root of this demon that is slowly devouring our youth.

***

Do you have feedback about this article? Please email: [email protected]