KENYAN police said Monday they had arrested a suspected serial killer who had confessed to murdering 42 women including his wife before dumping their dismembered bodies in a Nairobi rubbish tip.
Since Friday, a total of nine butchered bodies trussed up in plastic bags have been pulled from the garbage site in the Mukuru slum area in the south of the capital, a gruesome discovery that has horrified the nation.
Acting Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja said the 33-year-old suspect, named Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, was arrested at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) on Monday near a Nairobi bar where he had been watching the Euro 2024 football finals.
“We are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life,” the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Mohamed Amin told reporters.
“We are dealing with a vampire, a psychopath.”
Amin said Khalusha claimed the murders took place between 2022 and July 11 this year.
“The suspect confessed to have lured, killed, and disposed of 42 female bodies at the dumping site,” he added.
“Unfortunately, and this is very sad, the suspect alleged that his first victim was his wife… who he strangled to death, before dismembering her body and disposing it at the same site,” he said.
The suspect was tracked down after analysis of one of the victim’s mobile phones, Amin said, in a joint operation by the DCI and the National Police Service.
As officers swooped, “he was in the process of luring another victim”, Amin said.
Khalusha had confessed to having had “carnal knowledge” with some of his victims, he added.
Officers searched his one-room house, located just 100 metres (yards) from where the bodies were found, discovering a machete, nylon sacks, rope, a pair of industrial rubber gloves — as well as a “pink female handbag”, and “two female panties”.
The areas will remain “active crime scenes,” Amin said, promising a thorough investigation.