Fears are rife of the possible existence of underworld gangs targeting students leaving a trail of macarbre killings of learners.
In what points to a consistent mode of executions and macarbre killings through stabbing, students are suspected to have been recruited into the gangland criminal groupings.
The latest incident involves the killing of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) murder within the university hostels compound.
Joel Juma, a fourth-year Industrial Chemistry student at JKUAT, was stabbed two times on the chest by one of the thugs before they fled to darkness in the 2am incident.
According to Juma’s girlfriend who is a Law student at the Mt Kenya University, Parklands Campus, she had escorted her boyfriend to get some revision materials from his classmates a few blocks away, when the blood- thirsty gang accosted them.
“The girlfriend had gone to visit his lover last evening at around 6pm and found him studying for his examinations.
She prepared a meal that they shared together before they retired to bed,” stated Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) report.
However, Juma later woke up and embarked on his books at 2am, he asked her to escort him to where a classmate lived a few blocks away, to get some reference material that he needed before morning.
It is while on their way when the thugs attacked them near hotel Lilies, demanding for money and mobile phones.
Two of them descended on Juma with blows and kicks before stabbing him twice on the left side of his chest, leaving him lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
The third assailant manhandled the lady who hadn’t carried any valuable and luckily, left her unscathed.
Local guards who heard the commotion rushed to the scene and together with the heavily shaken girlfriend, helped Juma to a local dispensary where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Detectives from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) and the Special Service Unit (SSU) have been dispatched conduct the operation.
In the past, there have been police reports of students who have been killed within the school compound or their body found elsewhere.
Last month, a body of a 22-year-old man, a student at Maseno University was found dumped in a thicket after he was attacked by unknown people.
According to the Maseno police report, the deceased was in the company of a colleague when they were attacked while on their way to their hostels from a night club.
The other student is reported to have escaped only to realise that his colleague did not sleep in his cube.
Last year, a 19-year-old student was stabbed to death in an apparent case of love-turned sour.
Celestine Muthengei, a second-year community development student in Thika, was allegedly attacked in her hostel room on June, 2021.
A police report indicated that she sustained deep stabs in the chest, back, head and limbs, and succumbed to her injuries on arrival at Thika Level 5 Hospital.
Celestine’s roommates, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being attacked by the unknown boyfriend, said he entered their room when they had just had supper.
“He entered the room and calmly asked where Celestine was. He was so polite and no one could suspect that he had any ill motive. We thought he was a classmate and was probably looking for notes,” one of the roommates said.
In the same year, the country was shocked after a Kenyan man confessed to police that he stabbed, burnt and disposed of his girlfriend’s body before fleeing the country.
Lincoln Abraham Ng’iendo confessed to detectives attached to DCI of killing Elizabeth Kiloko Nthei, a Kenyatta University student.
Ng’iendo stated that he sold his TV for Sh21,000 because he was in need of the money for the second part of his plan.
On October 22, 2021 he removed the body and drove to Ruiru, doused it with petrol, and then set it on fire.
He posed as a kidnapper and called Nthei’s mother and asked for Sh45,000 or he would kill her – but the parents never sent the money.
Ng’iendo went back to the house, cleaned it and burned Nthei’s belongings before fleeing to Tanzania.
The suspect stayed in Tanzania for a while but on his way back to Kenya, immigration officers arrested him and he was jailed for 7 months before being freed and escorted to the Namanga border.
Further, a student of Laikipia University died last year after being stabbed by her roommate’s boyfriend.According to police report, Gertrude Chepkoech, who was attacked in her hostel room, succumbed at the scene.
After fatally stabbing the student in the head and stomach, the suspect, identified only as Ezra, turned the knife on himself, sustaining stab injuries in the neck and abdomen.
He was taken to the Nyahururu County Referral Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Nyahururu Sub-County Police Commander Mary Kiema said Chepkoech, 19, was alone in the hostel, which is located outside the university, when Ezra stormed.
