Nairobi, Kenya:

Kenyan police launched a major manhunt on Tuesday after a man they claim has confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women escaped from a Nairobi police cell, along with a dozen other detainees.

Collins Jumaisi, 33, described by police as a “vampire, a psychopath”, was arrested last month after the horrific discovery of mutilated bodies in a garbage dump in a slum in the Kenyan capital.

“Investigations have been launched and a major security operation is under way to get the 13 suspects,” Kenya police spokeswoman Resila Onyango told AFP.

Police said in a separate statement that they discovered the breakout when officers made a routine visit to the police station cells at around 5 am to serve the prisoners breakfast.

“On opening the cell door, they discovered that 13 prisoners had escaped by cutting the wire mesh in the basking bay,” it said, referring to an area in the station where detainees could get access to fresh air.

Those who fled were Jumaisi and 12 other people that police said were of Eritrean origin and were in custody for being “illegally present immigrants”.

The police station is located in the upmarket Nairobi district of Gigiri, home to the regional headquarters of the United Nations and numerous embassies.

It is the second time in barely six months that a suspect in a high-profile case has escaped from custody.

Kenyan national Kevin Kangethe, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend in the United States last year and leaving her body in an airport car park, fled a police station in February before being caught about a week later.

Police under spotlight

Jumaisi had appeared in a court in the Kenyan capital on Friday, when the magistrate ordered him to be held for a further 30 days to enable police to complete their investigations.

Ten butchered female bodies trussed up in plastic bags were found in the dumpsite in an abandoned quarry in the Nairobi slum of Mukuru, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said last month.

The grisly find shocked Kenyans, already reeling from the so-called Shakahola forest massacre after the discovery of more than 400 bodies in mass graves near the Indian Ocean coast.

A Kenyan cult leader is accused of inciting his followers to starve themselves to death in order to prepare for the end of the world and “meet Jesus”. He faces numerous charges including terrorism, murder and child cruelty along with dozens of co-defendants.

Jumaisi was detained in the early hours of July 15 near a Nairobi bar where he had been watching the Euro 2024 football final.

The head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, said after his arrest that Jumaisi had confessed to murdering 42 women over a two-year period from 2022, and that his wife had been his first victim.

“We are dealing with a vampire, a psychopath,” Amin said at the time.

The dumped bodies threw a fresh spotlight on Kenya’s police force as they were found just 100 metres (yards) from a police station.

The state-funded KNCHR said in July it was carrying out its own investigations into the Mukuru case because “there is a need to rule out any possibility of extrajudicial killings”.

Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority, had also said it was looking into whether there was any police involvement or a “failure to act to prevent” the killings.

Kenyan police are often accused by rights groups of carrying out unlawful killings or running hit squads, but few have faced justice.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Nairobi:

A Kenyan court on Tuesday ordered a man who police said has confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women to be detained for 30 days as they pursue their investigations.

Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, described by police as a “vampire, a psychopath”, was arrested in the early hours of Monday following the horrific discovery of mutilated bodies in a Nairobi garbage dump.

He appeared in a court in the Kenyan capital where the magistrate approved a police request for him to be held for 30 days to enable them to complete their probe.

Since Friday, 10 butchered female bodies trussed up in plastic bags have been hauled from the site of an abandoned quarry in the Nairobi slum of Mukuru, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

The head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, said Monday that Kalusha had confessed to murdering 42 women over a two-year period from 2022, and that his wife had been his first victim.

The DCI said in a statement Tuesday that investigators were holding another two “persons of interest”, one of whom was allegedly found with the phone of one of the victims.

Caught ‘luring another victim’

Kalusha was detained in the early hours of Monday near a bar where he had been watching the Euro 2024 football match, after officers analysed the phone of one of his alleged victims.

As officers swooped in, “he was in the process of luring another victim”, Amin told reporters.

“We are dealing with a vampire, a psychopath,” Amin said.

The grisly discoveries were made just 100 metres (yards) from a police station and the officers there have been transferred to ensure an unbiased investigation, acting national police chief Douglas Kanja said on Monday.

The area — including Kalusha’s home, also about 100 metres from where the bodies were found — will remain “active crime scenes”, Amin said.

The dumped bodies have thrown a spotlight on Kenyan police and added more pressure on President William Ruto, who is already confronting a crisis over protests that saw dozens of demonstrators killed and officers accused of using excessive force.

The state-funded KNCHR said it was carrying out its own investigations into the Mukuru case because “there is a need to rule out any possibility of extrajudicial killings”.

Amnesty International said it had been directly involved in the retrieval of some of the bodies and had sent independent pathologists to attend postmortems of the victims.

“While it is the case that a multiple homicide crime has taken place, only completing these autopsies will confirm the ongoing investigation into the perpetrator of these murders,” Irungu Houghton, executive director of Amnesty’s Kenya branch, told AFP.

Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority, had also said Friday it was looking into whether there was any police involvement or a “failure to act to prevent” the killings.

Tensions had run high at the crime scene over the weekend, as volunteers combed through the vast piles of rubbish in search of more victims with officers briefly firing tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Kenyan police are often accused by rights groups of carrying out unlawful killings or running hit squads, but few have faced justice.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A volunteer searches through a rubbish dump for human remains at Mukuru slum in Nairobi on July 14, 2024. Nine female bodies have been recovered so far from a dumpsite in a Nairobi slum.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A suspected serial killer has been arrested in Kenya following the discovery of several bodies at a quarry in Nairobi, with police saying on Monday he had confessed to killing 42 women including his wife.

Police said Collins Jumaisi, a 33-year-old man living near the quarry in Mukuru neighbourhood in the south of the capital, was arrested early on Monday.

The acting head of police, Douglas Kanja Kirocho, said nine bodies had been recovered so far from the quarry.

“It is crystallising that we are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life,” said Amin Mohamed, the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

Jumaisi confessed that he lured and killed 42 women and dumped their remains at the quarry, Mohamed said.

The murders stretch back to 2022, starting with Jumaisi’s wife, with the most recent on July 11, Mohamed said in the televised statement.

At Jumaisi’s home, police said they found several mobile phones, identity cards, a machete they believed was used to cut up the victims, industrial rubber gloves, rolls of sellotape and a dozen nylon sacks similar to those in which the victims were found.

Huge crowds gathered to watch the remains, many of which were dismembered, being retrieved from the quarry over the weekend, with some engaging in running battles with police.

Many local residents have been angered by rumours that the bodies were linked to alleged abductions of young protesters by security forces during recent street demonstrations.

The police have so far given no indication that the remains found are anything to do with the protests.

A government spokesperson shared a police statement on X on Friday saying that the authorities were analysing samples to identify the deceased and that investigations were under way.

An activist with the Mukuru Community Justice Centre rights group said most of the remains were decomposed, indicating they had been there for some time.

Earlier this month President William Ruto said reports of abductions by state agents were regrettable and that any officers found responsible would be held to account. Kenya’s police chief Japhet Koome resigned on Friday.