{On Monday, six-year-old Michelle Wangari was supposed to start her Standard One classes at Bungoma Primary School.}<\/p>\n
Her father had bought her a desk, books and uniform.<\/p>\n
But that was not to be. On Sunday afternoon, her body was found inside a toilet at the dusty Mung\u2019etho Bahati trading centre in Nanyuki, Laikipia County.<\/p>\n
She had been defiled and killed, in an incident that has shocked area residents not only because of its brutality, but the profiles of both the victim and a suspect who has since been arrested. <\/p>\n
Even after he defiled and killed the hapless girl, the heartless perpetrator unsuccessfully attempted to dump her body inside a pit latrine.<\/p>\n
Only the legs went in, leaving the upper part of the body sticking out. He then wrapped her head in a nylon paper.<\/p>\n
Blood was oozing from the mouth, nose and eyes, an indication that she could have been hit with a blunt object on the head.<\/p>\n
The killer also wrapped her with a pair of trousers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did he have to kill her? Wasn\u2019t raping her bad enough. I wish he could have let her live then we would have helped her overcome the pain,\u201d says Michelle\u2019s mother, Rosemary Nyambura as her husband Peter Gitonga tries to console her.<\/p>\n
It was the second major tragedy for Nyambura, who was among victims of 2008 post-election violence in Nakuru.<\/p>\n
At the family\u2019s one-room timber house in Nanyuki, mourners flocked in to condole with them, each petrified by reports of the act.<\/p>\n
A GRUESOME SCENE<\/p>\n
Opposite Nyambura\u2019s house is another row of houses made of iron sheets, where tenants are leaving in droves.<\/p>\n
The exodus is because the man accused of raping her used to live there.<\/p>\n
Mr Joseph Mwangi Muthuri, who works as a watchman at a nearby school, was saved by police from a mob bent on lynching him.<\/p>\n
The 61-year-old man was arraigned in court on Monday but did not take a plea as police were granted 12 days to complete investigations on the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, he is our main suspect and no one else has been arrested,\u201d said Laikipia East police boss Kegode Kidiavai. <\/p>\n
The parents\u2019 nightmare started on Sunday morning when Michelle was taken to the salon by her mother in preparation for school on Monday.<\/p>\n
Her father, a casual labourer, had left earlier for Nanyuki, where he was digging a latrine for a customer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mother wanted her hair plaited. But the girl preferred to get a haircut and that is what she got,\u201d recalls the salonist.<\/p>\n
But it is after Michelle received a haircut that the details get hazy.<\/p>\n
The salonist says Michelle left the salon and started her journey home, which is 200m away from the beauty parlour. <\/p>\n
She never reached home. The mother noted that something was amiss at midday, when Michelle failed to return home as scheduled.<\/p>\n
She began the search for her daughter at the trading centre.<\/p>\n
As her search progressed, a neighbour went to use the toilet and found a body wrapped in polythene. She screamed.<\/p>\n
A crowd gathered and one of them went for Nyambura at the trading centre. When she saw her daughter\u2019s body, she fainted.<\/p>\n
ADORABLE CHILD
\nPolice say that the suspect\u2019s grandson brought Michelle to the house as they were classmates in nursery school.<\/p>\n
The 10-year-old boy later left Michelle in the suspect\u2019s house and she was not seen alive again.<\/p>\n
At Bungoma Nursery School, where Michelle studied, teacher Joyce Maina remembers her as a bright girl who loved singing.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was always in the top 10 and passed the Standard One tests. She would entertain us with gospel songs during singing time,\u201d says the teacher. <\/p>\n
Her sentiments were shared by Michelle\u2019s grandmother, who lives 10 kilometres away.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a passion for music and animals that was quite encouraging for a girl of her age,\u201d says Jane Wangechi, who has 15 grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Her mother says she wanted to become a doctor.<\/p>\n
At the main school, the desk that Mwangi had bought for her daughter lies unused.<\/p>\n
She was to share it with two other pupils. But this will never be. Her life was snuffed out by the cruel hands of a rapist and killer.<\/p>\n
Source:Daily Nation:[Residents condemn defilement, murder of class one girl, 6,->http:\/\/www.nation.co.ke\/news\/Residents-condemn-defilement-and-murder-of-class-one-girl\/-\/1056\/3023710\/-\/f1gxg5z\/-\/index.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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