Kenyan police said on Monday they had arrested a suspected serial killer who confessed to killing 42 women, including his wife, and dumping their mutilated bodies in a Nairobi rubbish dump.
Nine bodies tied in plastic bags have been recovered from an abandoned mine site in Mukuru township since Friday, a gruesome discovery that has horrified the entire country.
Acting Police Inspector-General Douglas Kanja said the 33-year-old suspect, named as Collins Jumasi Khalusha, was arrested at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) near a Nairobi bar where he was watching the Euro 2024 football final.
“We are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no regard for human life,” Mohammed Amin, head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), told reporters. “We are dealing with a vampire, a psychopath.”
Amin said Khalusha has claimed that the murders took place between 2022 and July 11 this year.
“The suspect has confessed that he lured 42 women, killed them and dumped the bodies at the dumping site,” he said.
“Unfortunately, and this is very sad, the suspect alleged that his first victim was his wife … whom he strangled to death, and dismembered her body and disposed of it at the same location.”
Police said Khalusha will be produced in court on Tuesday.
‘Luring another victim’
Amin said the suspect was traced following analysis of the victim’s mobile phone in a joint operation by the DCI and the National Police Service.
When officers arrived, “he was trying to trap another victim,” Amin said.
He said Khalusha had confessed to having “physical relations” with some of his victims.
Officers searched his one-room house, located just 100 metres (300 ft) from where the bodies were found, and recovered a knife, nylon sacks, rope, a pair of industrial rubber gloves – as well as a “pink lady’s handbag” and “two female panties”.
Amin said the areas remained “active crime scenes”, and promised a thorough investigation.
According to the police, so far nine mutilated bodies have been recovered from the spot. Kanja said that the post-mortem of the victims will be done on Monday. Eight bodies have been confirmed to be of women.
Amin said the second suspect was also arrested and a phone belonging to one of the victims was recovered from him.
Following the discovery of the bodies, Kenya’s Department of Gender and Affirmative Action on Sunday condemned the “horrific act” and called for more action against gender-based violence.
According to a UN report, the East African country recorded 725 cases of femicides in 2022, the highest number since data collection began in 2015.
Police in the spotlight
The dumped bodies have again focused attention on Kenyan police and increased pressure on President William Ruto, who is struggling to control a crisis sparked by massive anti-government protests that have left dozens of demonstrators dead.
Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), on Friday said it was investigating whether police had any involvement in the bodies found in the garbage dump, which is just 100 metres from a police station.
The IPOA is also investigating whether no action was taken to prevent these gruesome murders.
Kanja told reporters on Sunday that all officers of the nearby police post have been transferred.
Still, tensions remained high at the crime scene over the weekend, as volunteers sifted through huge piles of trash looking for more victims and officers briefly fired tear gas to disperse crowds.
Kenyan police are often accused by human rights groups of using excessive force, committing unlawful killings or running murder squads, but very few have faced justice.
The Mukuru massacre follows the so-called “Shakahola Forest massacre”, when the bodies of about 400 members of the doomsday cult were found in mass graves near the coast last year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
