PENNING A PAINFUL TRIBUTE TO STARLET WAHU THE SOCIALITE.

I have not said a meaningful prayer in a long time but today, I did. I said a prayer for a friend as this morning social media was in a frenzy with the news of the demise of 24-year-old Starlet Wahu Mwangi. The tabloids have labeled her as Pastor Kanyari’s younger sister and Reverend Lucy’s daughter. It baffles me that a woman’s worth can only be determined in relation to a man. However hard it is to believe, Wahu was a woman of her caliber and she was enough. Not as someone’s daughter, sister or niece, or such relation.

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On the 3^rd of January, this year, Wahu and her assailant, John Matara, walked into the Pavilion apartments in South B to check into an Airbnb. Hours later, John Matara walked out alone wearing bloody clothes and this raised an alarm for the watchman who immediately called the police who responded within no time and found the door to the apartment number ‘Y32’ locked from the outside. They gained access to the room and found Wahu’s lifeless body in the sitting room. In what was a very bloody crime scene, the police found condoms, an HIV test kit, marijuana blunts, alcohol, etc. Wahu’s body, found nude, also had stab wounds. It goes without saying that it was a sexual encounter gone awry.

Detectives were able to trace John Matara’s location to Mbagathi Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for an apparent stab wound. Women have come forward since the story broke to talk about their own near-death experiences at the hands of Matara. It is alleged that this is Mr. Matara’s MO (modus operandi). He targets the young girls through dating sites, lures them out, has them take an HIV test, they then engage in sexual intercourse and then he asks for money from the girls under coercion.

My two cents, about all of this are as follows. I knew Wahu from our days at the University of Nairobi and we all wanted to be like her. It is easy to look at someone’s lifestyle and judge them based on appearances and this is what we did. With a little more time, I learned that Wahu comes from a well-off family. She also had her own business, Luxe, which is a testament to her need to work for her money.
Social media has done nothing, if not speak ill of her. However little, or much I knew about her, I know that she was a girl with resilience. Regardless of what social media thinks, Wahu did not deserve to die in the gruesome manner that she did. She died a most horrific, and painful death.

You who are tempted to judge her harshly remember this, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Rest in eternal glory, Starlet.