A man has confessed to killing 42 women in Kenya after police discovered nine dismembered bodies in a quarry.
“Serial killer” Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, told police he had murdered 42 women, beginning with his wife in 2022, before dumping their bodies in a quarry in Mukuru, Nairobi.
The head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, said: “It is crystallising that we are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life.”
He added: “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 said the alleged killer’s arrest followed “forensic analysis of a mobile phone belonging to one of the victims, Josphine Mulongo Owino, where mobile money transactions conducted on the day she went missing pointed to the suspect.”
Khalusha reportedly told police his most recent alleged killing took place on July 11 and appeared in court today.
Raiding his home, police said they discovered mobile phones, identity cards, rubber gloves, a dozen nylon bags and a machete they believe was used to cut up the victims.
He was arrested at a club in Soweto, east of Nairobi, at 3am local time on Monday, where he had been watching the final of the Euro 2024 football tournament.
Speaking in a press conference on Monday, acting police inspector general, Douglas Kanja said the bodies “were severely dismembered, in different states of decomposition, and left in sacks.”
Female leaders in Kenya have called for greater protections for women in the wake of Khalusha’s arrest.
Speaking at a press briefing, lawmaker Leah Sankaire Sopiato asked: “Those women might have been killed today, but which woman is next in line?
“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.”
Sopiato demanded the return of gender desks at police stations across Kenya and called for greater training on gender-based crimes.
