College student raped and murdered in Soy, sparking protests

Business activities in Moi’s Bridge town at the border of Uasin Gishu and Kakamega Counties were halted on Tuesday as hundreds of angry residents demonstrated, demanding justice for the brutal rape and murder of a 24 year old college student whose mutilated body was found dumped in a farm at Nabiswa village Soy sub county.

Using heavy boulders while pelting stones to a contingent of security officers, irate mob of protestors barricaded Eldoret–Kitale road paralyzing transport activity for several hours as they engaged police officer in a running battle.

According to the deceased’s elder sister Sheila Wanyota, her sister Emma Makiniah together with their mother left home Monday mid-morning to buy a solar panel at Moi’s Bridge. The sister returned back with two electricians who were supposed to install the solar panel as their mother proceeds on duty.

She said the sister who is a beauty therapy student at Vera beauty college in Eldoret had been hired by a couple who is preparing to wed this month to be in charge of decoration and she left at about 2pm for the wedding preparations.

Sheila who resides at Matunda said her sister failed to return on time as expected and she decided to close the house and left for Matunda at about 5:30pm.

When the mother return back home at 6pm she could not find her and she became suspicious after she found everything in a mess in the house indicating there was a struggle in there.

On careful look the mother spotted blood trails from Makiniah’s room and when she tried to call her phone wasn’t going through, she later reported the incident at Moisbridge police station.

She said after a long search deep into the night, they were shocked to discover the mutilated body of her sister dumped in a farm near their home.

According to the mother Mrs. Beatrice Luseno Wanyota, the main suspect Mustafa Juma is a well-known carpenter in Moi’s Bridge and has been forcing her daughter to love him.

“Two weeks ago he went to Eldoret and took my daughter’s phone, and I was informed of it by her colleague student who called telling me that there was a man from Moi’s Bridge who had gone to the college forcing Emma to love him and had even taken her phone.”

Later, the man came here claiming to be in love with my daughter but she had refused her proposal when I asked Emma she denied being in a relationship with him and not even interested,” explained the mother.

Mrs. Wanyota said the suspect raped her daughter before hacking her to death with a sharp object believed to be a machete and later chopping off both legs and right hand.

“We found her underclothes on the chair in the sitting room an indication that she was raped,” said Mrs. Wanyota.

The suspect whose clothes were found with blood stains was later arrested by the police and locked up at Moi’s Bridge police station sparking horrendous demonstration amongst the residents who stormed the station baying for his blood.

Police officers were forced to lob tear gas canisters at the crowd and even fire in the air in a bid to restore normalcy.

The family has demanded the suspect produce the missing parts of their daughter before she is buried. “We will not bury our daughter without her missing legs and the hand. It’s against the African culture to bury her like that, we demand he be compelled to produce them because he know where he hid them,” said a family member.

The body was moved to Moi Teaching and Referral Mortuary in Eldoret as police launched investigation into the incident.