Nairobi: Kenya’s police Monday said that they had arrested a suspected serial killer who they said confessed to killing 42 women in the past two years, a shocking development in a country wracked by political turmoil and a spate of violence against women.
Police arrested the man days after the dismembered bodies of nine women were found at an abandoned quarry used as a dumping site in a shantytown in Nairobi, the capital.
The man, identified as Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, confessed to having “lured, killed and disposed” of the women, including his wife, at the dumping site, according to a statement by Mohamed I. Amin, director of the police department’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations. Khalusha confessed to having carried out the killings between 2022 and this past Thursday, Amin said.
Police say that they are still investigating the motive behind the killings. The suspect is set to be arraigned in court Tuesday.
The murders of the women have rattled Kenya, a nation of 55 million people that has been swept by deadly protests over tax hikes and graft that have galvanised young people.
The revelations of the murders have added to the scrutiny of the police force, which was accused of killing at least 41 people and brutally abducting and detaining dozens of other activists during the latest demonstrations.
The discovery of the nine bodies added to the low public trust in the police, whose chief resigned last week after officers’ conduct during the weekslong protests had been widely denounced.
Kenya’s independent police watchdog said that it was looking into whether there was “any police involvement in the deaths or failure to act to prevent” the murders of the women.
Police officials said that the nine bodies were found after the relative of a missing woman said that she had dreamed that she had instructed them to search the dump site. The victims were between the ages of 18 and 30, and their bodies were in various stages of decomposition, police said.
On Monday, police officials said that they had traced the suspect after doing a forensic analysis of a mobile phone belonging to one of the victims.
Published 16 July 2024, 03:43 IST