Munyuki: How Grade Four girl was defiled, murdered on her way from school

• By Sam Oduor

A family in Munyuki Sub-location in Lumakanda Ward, Lugari, is still coming to terms on the manner in which their Grade Four girl at Springs of Hope Academy was defiled and murdered on her way from school.

Esther Ayuma, 11, was going back home on Thursday evening in the company of three other students before they parted at a T-junction, leaving the little girl on her own.

“We waited for the girl until 6.00pm before we suspected there was something amiss. Her mother thought she had gone to her grandma’s, her father doubted it. They phoned the grandmother only to be told that she hadn’t turned up there,” her aunt Zelder Kadenge told Lugari Daily.

The family called the school. They were told the girl had attended the regular learning and left with other students towards home.

The school patron Ms Nancy Indusa declined commenting on the matter. She said the incident happened outside school and she couldn’t speak about it.

A Grade Four student from Munyuki in Lumakanda Ward was found brutally murdered after failing to show up home from school. (Photo– courtesy)

What was at the crime scene?

Ms Kadenge said the girl’s body was found Friday morning lying lifeless at the path the minor uses between home and school, before the police and DCI visited the scene and carried it away.

“Her neck was tightly tied with her sweater. Her nose and mouth were frothing,” she said, adding that the girl could have undergone physical torture.

She added that it was discovered she didn’t have her underclothe on when her father demanded for her body to be uncovered at the mortuary.

“It was also discovered her private parts were swollen, indicating that she could have been raped severally,” she said.

Ms Kadenge says the family doesn’t link the crime to any particular person. She believes that it could have been done by some untamed person.

What picture draws from the crime scene?

Pictures from the crime scene seen by Lugari Daily showed the minor lying dead and her mouth and nose frothing. Her school bag was lying beside her head. She had her socks with one shoe on, her dress pulled up abit and her head covered by a blue clothing.

On her chest was a note written on her book and reading: “Pole kwa wazazi wa Ayuma. Nimemuua kwa sababu ulinikataa tufanye mapenzi na wewe. Ndio maana nimekutia machungu zaidi next ni mengine chunga sana… (Condolences to the parents of Ayuma. I have killed her because you refused we have sex. That is why I have decided to painfully hurt you…It is going to happen again to someone else be careful…).”

The note left after the student was brutally murdered. (Photo– courtesy)

What is being done about this?

Lugari MP Ayub Savula, while commenting on the incident, said he was going to summon the relevant authorities for swift action.

The leader noted the rising insecurity in the region and said he would work on it.

Ms Kadenge said a post mortem is underway to ascertain the nature of Ayuma’s death.