A Look at Kenya’s Rising Femicide Epidemic: Tragedy, Anger, and Calls for Change

The 2023 Global Femicide Report, released jointly by UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, recorded a staggering 51,100 intentional killings of women and girls across the world that year. These killings were found to not only be overwhelmingly carried out by intimate partners or close family relatives but also to majoritarily occur in no other place than the victim’s home. Being confronted with the deep intimacy of both the home as a place of death and close relatives as the leading perpetrators of femicides should be a reminder of the omnipresent reality that no place seems to be safe enough for female life. 

Femicide is one of the six and the most extreme manifestation of gender-based violence. It refers to the intentional homicide of women and girls committed as a result of gender-based discrimination and the harmful social norms that ensue. Thus, when the 2023 Global Femicide Report identified the home as the most dangerous place for women and girls, it also communicated that it is there that they are most susceptible to face lethal victimization. This is a global reality for women everywhere but it is particularly pronounced on the African continent which accounts for the highest number of femicide victims in aggregate terms and relative to the size of its population. In 2023 alone, 21,700 out of all 51,100 femicide killings happened in Africa. Consequently, it remains important to recognize the long overdue need to talk about and act upon gender-based violence on the continent. Simultaneously facing a continued attack on its women and overtook by protest marches demanding an end to femicide, the East African country of Kenya has specifically been grappling with this reality for some time now.

A series of high-profile femicide cases brought the issue to the international eye, the first being the killing of Edith Muthoni in 2021. Muthoni was a 27-year-old Kenyan athlete who had been passionate about long-distance races since her childhood.

She ran in local marathon races in the country’s capital and participated in 400-metres and 800-metres regional competitions. She had been with her boyfriend, Kennedy Nyamu, for three years when, on October 12th, 2021, he hacked her in the head after a dispute at Kianjege East Village in Kerugoya. Muthoni was taken to the Kerugoya County Referral Hospital where she died shortly after being brought to the emergency ward in critical condition. Nyamu was arrested from his hideout in Kirinyaga the same day.

Less than 24 hours after this horrific murder, the country was shaken to its core by what is arguably one of the most high-profile cases of femicide in Kenya to this day. On October 13th, Agnes Tirop— a two-time bronze medallist at the World Athletics Championships and Tokyo Olympics competitor— was stabbed to death by her husband, Ibrahim Rotich. Considering Kenya’s reputation for producing the world’s fastest and top-performing marathoners of all time, Tirop’s case is especially significant because it accentuates the gender-based violence that female runners are subjected to as they practice and aspire to live from their sport.

Tirop was born in 1995 in the Kenyan village of Nandi where she grew up having little money. One of nine, and coming from a family where both her father and grandfather had been long-distance runners, she showed an early aptitude for the sport. Her first win came at the age of 15 when she won a 5,000-metre race at a national junior competition. She flew to South Africa for another race that same year, and, from there, her running career took off. Along the way, she met a man named Ibrahim Rotich with whom she developed affinities. Though Rotich was 15 years older, Tirop’s sisters were marked by his investment in helping her become the champion she was destined to be. Despite protests from her parents, Tirop soon dropped out of school and fled town with Rotich who had then offered to become her manager and coach. They eventually moved to the small town of Iten, located in Kenya's renowned Great Rift Valley.

The Great Rift Valley is widely known as the world’s running capital. It is one of the most extensive rifts, stretching round one-sixth of the Earth’s circumference. Sitting in the mountains, the town of Iten lies almost 8000 feet above sea level and allows athletes to run at low elevations where the air is oxygen-rich and live in high altitudes where they can develop their lung capacity. These conditions have rendered Iten the perfect town to train as an aspiring professional athlete. After moving to the town, Tirop and Rotich secretly got married. However, very quickly, Rotich became controlling and abusive. He started using significant portions of Tirop’s money at bars, threatened to burn the house if she left him, and forbade her from reconnecting with her family. Tirop spoke with several members of her surrounding athletic community about her husband hitting her. Alexis Okeawo, a New Yorker reporter who traveled to the Great Rift Valley to better grasp this recurring phenomenon, explains that many female runners try to move to Iten to start their running career and are approached by men who offer to coach them— despite having little to no qualifications to do so. Over time, these young women get into relationships with these men and a cycle of abuse begins shortly thereafter. This cycle is marked by financial control, threats, and physical violence. Tirop’s cycle ended with her body found stabbed and beaten to death in her home.

This is Tirop’s story but also that of countless other victims who moved to Iten for a dream and were met with the dangerous reality of being female and athlete. Tirop was one of the most successful runners in Kenya at the time of her death. That year, she had taken 4th place in the 5000-metre race at the Tokyo Olympics and broke the world record for the 3000-metre race in Germany. Her murder instantly shook the country and inspired the creation of an organization titled Tirop’s Angels which fights against gender-based violence in the country.

Still, in the span of six months, the town of Iten saw another long-distance runner murdered by her intimate partner. Damaris Muthee Mutua, a 28-year-old Kenyan-Bahraini athlete, died on April 19, 2022, after being strangled by her boyfriend. She left behind a 6-year-old son from a previous marriage.

Such attacks further amplified national concerns about what activists started calling a femicide epidemic. By the beginning of 2024, over 30 cases of femicide had already occurred across Kenya and a national sentiment of anger had overtaken the country.

On the 27th of January, the women of Kenya took to the streets in a beautiful act of solidarity to demand that the government speak about and act upon the countless incidents of femicide that had been plaguing Kenya. They gathered to write a “Kenya Women Against Femicide Statement” wherein they strongly condemned the rise in violence against women, their solidarity with the victims and their families as well as their determination to seek accountability for the perpetrators. The document outlines Kenyan women’s exhaustion, heartbreak, anger, fatigue, despair, and frustration in the face of the insecurity that women are experiencing. It lists a total of 17 demands, including the establishment of a Commission on the Elimination of Femicide and Violence Against Women and Girls, the adoption of the UN data collection framework on femicide to design evidence-based solutions, as well as the recognition of femicide as a crime.

A year later, little has changed and femicide cases are still on the rise. The barbaric murder of Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei is evidence of government inaction and the widespread prevalence of impunity. The 33-year-old woman was Uganda’s Women’s Marathon record holder and competed in the Paris Olympics. In early September 2024, Cheptegei’s ex-boyfriend— Dickson Ndiema Marangach— stuck into her home while she was at church with her two daughters. Upon her return, he doused her with petrol and set her alight. Cheptegei was rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret but passed away on September 5th from extensive burns that led to multiple organ failure.

Marrangash splashed some of the fuel he poured on Cheptegei and got caught in the fire he started. He also died at the same hospital due to burns sustained in the attack. 

Let us not think that it takes being an athlete to die at the hands of femicide. Ordinary Kenyan women, young and old, impoverished and wealthy, have died at the hands of violent partners. In their home. In Airbnbs. On dates. In the streets. Everywhere women are found. Several Kenyan organizations have been established in an attempt to demand definite change for the women of Kenya. They exist to raise awareness about the alarming rise of gender-based violence in the country and continue to fervently demand safety for the women of Kenya. Just as these organizations do, we must carry with us the memory of these women and insist on actualizing a changed reality— all of this in their name.