Suspected Serial Killer Confesses to Murdering 42 Women, Kenyan Police Say
A suspected serial killer in Kenya has confessed to murdering 42 women over the past two years, according to police. This shocking revelation has ignited calls for increased measures to combat gender-based violence in the country.
Authorities have identified the suspect as Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, who “lured, killed, and disposed of 42 female bodies,” of which only nine have been recovered. He was arrested in Soweto, east of Nairobi, at 3 a.m. local time on Monday, outside a club where he had gone to watch the Euro 2024 soccer final, Kenya’s director of criminal investigations, Mohamed Amin, told journalists.
“On interrogation, the suspect confessed to having lured, killed, and disposed of 42 female bodies at the dumping site, all murdered between 2022 and Thursday, 11 July, 2024,” Amin stated.
Acting police inspector general, Douglas Kanja, added that a “post-mortem examination is happening today” on the nine bodies recovered so far.
In a news conference on Sunday before Khalusha’s arrest, Kanja described the recovered bodies as “severely dismembered, in different states of decomposition, and left in sacks.” The bodies were retrieved from a landfill site over the weekend.
“We are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for life,” Amin said on Monday.
Khalusha “led officers to his single-room rented house,” located about 100 meters (328 feet) from the crime scene, Amin said. Among the “crucial” items discovered in the house were a machete, 12 nylon sacks, a pair of industrial rubber gloves, a hard drive, and eight smartphones.
According to Khalusha’s confession, his first victim was his wife, whom he “strangled to death before dismembering her body and disposing it at the site.” Amin noted that “all his victims have been murdered in like manner.”
Khalusha’s arrest followed a “forensic analysis of a mobile phone belonging to one of the victims, Josphine Mulongo Owino,” with mobile money transactions conducted on the day she went missing pointing to the suspect.
The first six bodies were discovered on Friday by residents of Kware, in Nairobi’s Mukuru kwa Njenga neighbourhood. Police said the bodies were found in an “abandoned quarry,” now “filled with water and used as a dumpsite.”
On Monday, police revealed that the suspect lived a short walk from the dumpsite, raising questions about how he evaded detection for two years, especially given the site’s proximity to a police station.
Following the revelation, a group of female leaders called for enhanced protection for Kenyan women amidst rising cases of femicide.
“Those women might have been killed today, but which woman is next in line?” asked Kajiado lawmaker Leah Sankaire Sopiato at a press briefing. “It is so sad that someone who killed 42 people was still roaming out there. Women’s lives must count, and women’s lives must be protected.”
The group has called for the re-establishment of gender desks at police stations nationwide with well-trained officers to address cases of gender-based violence.
The public remains in shock as the investigation continues, highlighting the urgent need for systemic changes to protect vulnerable individuals and prevent such atrocities in the future.
