Ivy Wangechi Murder: Naftali Kinuthia Confesses Why He Killed His Girlfriend Using an Axe

The Jealousy that led to the death of a young university student Ivy Wangechi.

On Friday, March 3, 33-year-old Naftali Kinuthia appeared before a judge in Malindi, Kilifi County, for the first time since the High Court found that he had a case to answer back in 2022.

In court on Friday, Mr Kinuthia, who is an IT expert, claimed that his relationship with Wangechi started way back while they were both still in primary school.

According to him, the two were still together even after they both joined high school.

Naftali Kinuthia told the court that for the four years, he’s been under police custody, he’s reflected on his actions and sympathises with Wangeci’s family.

Why He Killed His University Lover

He said that he was so angry that he doesn’t recollect picking up the axe to attack and kill Ivy Wangeci who was his then girlfriend out of jealousy after seeing him hug another man.

“Those events greatly impaired my thinking right before my face. I can’t even tell when I decided to pick the axe. I wasn’t myself. It’s hard, and I feel bad for the victim’s family. If there was anything that could be done now, I could do it,” Naftali Kinuthia said.

He added, “I only left for a few metres, and looking back, I saw them hugging. I can’t tell if they planned to do it that way or if it just happened. I was too angry to think clearly.”

Kinuthia told the court that he had spent way more than Ksh. 100,000 on Ivy Wangechi.

He said that he was also very angered by Ivy’s act of hugging another man in front of him and also added that ivy Wangechi was cheating on him at the time.

According to him, he couldn’t stand watching a man he considered his rival hugging his girlfriend in his presence.

“I could not stand that scenario. I lost control of myself and attacked her with my ax since I was out of my mind. I was completely out of myself,” he said.

He told the court that On the fateful day, he had travelled to Eldoret to help with the facilitation of a colorful birthday that was scheduled for April 10, 2019.

Adding that he felt very hurt and heartbroken when Wangeci told him she loved someone else and ridiculed him for being short.

“I was not happy when the deceased (Ivy) told me, through her close friend, that she did not love me because I was too short,” he said.

Regrets

Kinuthia says he regrets the incident and that he was overwhelmed by anger over what he termed as a love relationship gone sour.

“This is an incident that I have regretted forever. After thinking about it and reflecting, I knew it would not have happened since there were many ways to get around the situation without causing the death of an innocent person,” Kinuthia told the court.

“Since that day I have felt like I have been secluded from society since killing a person is unacceptable in society.”

Kinuthia who revealed that his father died of a lung disease during the period he has been in prison, lamented how Ivy’s family might have been affected by the death of their kin.

Wangechi was hacked to death outside the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret on April 9, 2019, in broad daylight.

Wangechi was laid to rest in Mahiga, Nyeri County on Thursday, April 18, 2019.