ODM leader Raila Odinga has decried the rising cases of gender-based violence in the country advising Kenyan couples: “If it’s not working, leave.”
The former Prime Minister, in a social media post, also said Kenyans need to have a candid conversation in order to end the senseless killings.
He said: “We need an urgent candid discussion on #GenderBasedViolence as a nation.”
He went on: “It is unfortunate that after winning their partner’s heart, instead of going on to cherish and love them, some suddenly turn physical, and at times horrifically end up killing them. Too many lives are being lost on an almost daily basis going by media reports.”
Raila urged couples to walk away from relationships if they cannot reconcile.
“This scourge must come to an end. The abnormality of these murders cannot become the normal No! If you cannot reconcile, then, leave and let live,” advised the former Premier.
Some of the recent murders include that of 24-year-old Catherine Nyokabi, a mother of one who was on April 14 strangled to death by a man she had been dating for the past four years. Evans Karani, a 38-year-old businessman, confessed to the crime.
Infidelity
Their relationship had been rocked with claims of infidelity with Mr Karani accusing Ms Nyokabi of having an affair with another man.
Two weeks ago, a police constable attached to Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi’s office shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself.
Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai said GSU officer, Hudson Wakise, shot and killed his wife, Pauline, before taking his life on April 6.
Mr Mutyambai said the couple may have had a domestic quarrel before the shooting incident.
“Wakise, who had been off duty since April 1, reported back to work on April 6 but left at 3 pm and went home near the GSU camp in Ruaraka,” said Mr Mutyambai.
Sources said the couple had been living together inside the GSU camp, but Pauline moved out to a new house near the camp.
And on Monday, April 19, police in Nkubu, Imenti South, Meru County arrested a 25-year-old man who is suspected to have hacked to death his three-year-old daughter and seriously injured his wife after a domestic row.
Boniface Murithi, a tea picker at Murungurune had picked a quarrel with his wife Mary Nchabira, 31 after which he slashed her on the arm with a machete, nearly severing it.
Instinctively, their child Princess Kawira, 3, crawled towards the injured mother and was hacked on the head. She died instantly.