Kenya's Maria Goretti-First anniversary of her murder

Kenya’s Maria Goretti

Valerian Njeri Nduno - tragically murdered on Thursday 28^th November 2019

On the morning of Thursday 28^th November 2019, Valerian Njeri was asked to return a book loaned to her by a 17-year-old neighbour. She did so around midday but was killed by the same boy when she turned down his “request to get intimate”.

When Valerian Njeri (15) returned the Chemistry book she had borrowed from a boy who lived down the road from her home, he started making sexual advances to her. She refused and a struggle ensued. She managed to rebuff him, but when she tried to escape, he used the knife he had been using to chop French beans to stab her. The knife broke and Valerian was still breathing. He rushed to the kitchen, grabbed another knife, and slit her throat. He then hid her body under his bed and meticulously cleaned the house of any evidence. Later he shared a meal with his family.

That night, with the body still under his bed, he waited for his parents to be asleep. Before dawn, he dragged the body outside not far from his home which is about 100 metres from the Nduno homestead.

When his parents woke up around 05.00 early Friday, he had already disposed of the body and had his books spread on the table. This surprised his mother!

“He had become lazy when it came to studying, and I was shocked to find him already reading at that hour,” said his mother, Susan Warugu.

He had been questioned by Valerian’s parents on whether he knew where she was, but he had replied that he had not seen her. It took the eye of one policeman to notice something was not right. The boy had a cut on his foot, and his shorts had traces of dried blood. When they shone some ultraviolet light in his room, they noticed a blood trail that led to his bed. The police then took him in for questioning and he confessed. The boy admitted that Valerian had gone to consult him over a Chemistry question. The Form Three student at Nanyuki High School, was arrested by police as the prime suspect. Forensic officers counted 26 stab wounds on the teenager’s body, each of them draining life out of the girl.

The girl’s father, Mr John Nduno, said he and his wife had gone to attend a friend’s funeral ceremony that Thursday, when he was informed that his daughter was missing. Tragically, the next day, they would be planning yet another burial.

Valerian had also been asked to attend to her parent’s maize mill. Her father had received a call from an irate customer saying the “posho” mill had been left unattended and Valerian was nowhere in sight. By the time they got home, Valerian was still missing, but her books lay open on a bench, a sign that she had been studying.

Mr Ndonu said that after being informed that his daughter was missing, he rushed home with his wife and joined neighbours, friends and relatives in searching for the girl. After several hours of searching, as night fell, we gave up and decided to continue with the search the next morning. The following day, a neighbour stumbled on her lifeless body near their compound.

“On Friday morning I was informed that our eldest daughter’s body had been found by the roadside not far from our home” said the grieving father. “We have so many painful questions. We knew they were friends, and would often exchange exam papers. So this murder has caught us by surprise. It leaves us wounded spiritually and emotionally,” John Nduno said.

The parents are yet to come to terms with the death of their firstborn child, whom they described as the family’s beacon of hope. “She was everything a parent wanted in a child. She was obedient and loved education. She wanted to become a doctor and was passionate about it,” said the mourning father. She had scored 346 marks in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, securing admission to the prestigious Mary Leakey Girls School, and was to begin Form Three in January 2020.

Her mother Mary Goleti (named after Maria Goretti! - L and R are often substituted one for the other in the local vernacular) said her daughter was a staunch Catholic and loved the church. “We used to take it in turns to lead prayers whenever she was home” she said.

On the fateful day, Mr Ndonu recalls reminding her daughter to complete her house chores as well as her holiday assignments. “She promised to do so the same day, and we agreed I would sign her school diary that evening. That was the last time we spoke,” said Mr Ndonu, overcome with emotion.

The two families are reported to have been close. John Nduno says the accused was “a respectable boy who regularly worked through exam papers with his daughter. Only a week ago, I gave him a lift to church on my motorcycle. I never imagined such an incident could ever occur”. However, the mother of the boy said her son had become “rebellious ever since he started Form Three”.

Numerous mourners trooped to the homestead to offer condolences to the family that lost their first-born daughter, following her tragic killing on the 28^th November. Some, too emotional to cope with the tragedy, wept openly, as others sat around forlornly. One of them, a neighbour, Jane Wanjiku, described Valerian as “humble, respectful and bright. This incident has left us shaken as we knew both students. At no time did we ever think we would be here mourning one, as the other went to jail,” she said.

Fathers Jude Kariuki and David Shirima, who conducted the burial ceremony, described Valerian as an epitome of discipline with strong Christian values.

Father Shirima called on area residents to forgive the girl’s killer and continue working closely with his family so as not to make them feel neglected following the boy’s act.

Rest in eternal peace Valerian Njeri Ndonu.

 Final comment: It is a real pity that here in Kenya and in Africa generally, her story – which is replicated thousands of times all over the continent, has drawn so little attention! Just another GBV incident. Newspapers carried her story for no more than a week and then she got forgotten except by her family. But Valerian needs to be held up as heroic as Maria Goretti is, as a role model for the teens of our times, and maybe even her cause for canonization be introduced, although I do not know enough about her to confidently claim this.

It’s not that we want all the teenaged girls to suffer similar outcomes, resisting to immoral demands from their male peers, but at least Valerian can inspire them to stand up for our Christian values.  And she is but one of many hundreds of girls who have suffered similar fates. The perpetrators need to be shamed for their behaviour instead of simply be tolerated as “boys just being boys”!     (Francois Dufour sdb)

 - Article drafted from several Kenyan Newspaper articles (as are the photos below) which appeared between the 30^th November and 5^th December 2019 and which are available online by simply doing a google search.