Following his arrest on Monday, a Kenyan man admitted to killing at least 42 women over two years, including his wife.
Officials claim that Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, went on a murder spree that may have started in 2022 and killed his most recent victim up to four days before his arrest on Monday.
“We are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for life,” Kenya’s director of criminal investigations, Mohamed Amin, stated at a press conference after the arrest on Monday in Nairobi.
There is an abandoned landfill site next to his house where nine remains, “severely dismembered, in different states of decomposition, and left in sacks,” have been found so far. On Monday, a post-mortem examination of the remains is anticipated.
In Soweto, east of Nairobi, Kenya, Khalusha was taken into custody outside a club on Monday at around three in the morning local time. He had gone there to see the European 2024 soccer tournament final.
Amin stated, “During questioning, the suspect admitted to having killed, lured, and dumped 42 female bodies at the dumping site.” The victims were allegedly murdered between July 11 and 2022.
Officials report that another suspect who was found in possession of a victim’s phone has been taken into custody in this case.
Following his arrest, Khalusha confessed to “having lured, killed and disposed of 42 female bodies,” including his wife and another woman, according to Kenyan police who were following his cell phone signal. This information was obtained after Khalusha was detained.
According to the police, he killed his wife Imelda Judith Khalenya by strangulation before dismembering her body and dumping it at the landfill where other victims were subsequently discovered.
“The mobile money transfer transaction utilizing Josphine Owino’s phone number is what enabled detectives to locate the suspect,” Amin informed reporters, alluding to the purported victim who had been reported absent.
The human remains of several of the victims, who were thought to be between the ages of 18 and 30, were first discovered by local authorities last week. They were found put into sacks near an abandoned quarry in Kware, where the alleged killer rented a property just 300 feet away.
It took place while a doomsday cult leader was on trial for terrorism-related offenses after over 400 of his followers perished in a separate case.
Several objects that police claim were discovered in Khalusha’s one-room apartment were displayed during the news conference on Monday. These items included ten cell phones, twenty-four SIM cards, two male and six female ID cards, a pair of rubber gloves, twelve nylon sacks, ropes, gloves, deeds, female underwear, and a machete that they believe was used to dismember some of his alleged victims.
Following an increase in feticide cases, a group of female leaders in Kenya demanded on Monday that greater safeguards be put in place for Kenyan women.
“Those women might have been killed today, but which woman is next in line?” Legislator Leah Sankaire Sopiato of Kajiado questioned. “That someone who killed forty-two people was still out there is just heartbreaking. The lives of women must be valued and safeguarded.”
This episode occurs at a time when Kenya has been making significant strides in recent months to forge a stronger alliance with the US and establish itself on the international scene. Most notably, Kenyan troops were recently dispatched as part of a multinational force to gang-ridden Haiti. mission to maintain peace.
Declared in May, President Joe Biden plans to designate Kenya as a “Major Non-NATO ally,” an honor bestowed only nations “with close and strategic working relationships with the U.S. military and defense civilians.”
Meanwhile, weeks ago, minutes after MPs passed the controversial tax plan, riots broke out in Nairobi and Kenyan President William Ruto withdrew it. A day later, police opened fire on demonstrators storming the country’s Parliament building, killing 22 and injuring over 200 more.
In response, police opened fire on the irate mob opposing the plan, which would have increased taxes in a country where many already find it difficult to make ends meet and provide for their families.