Kenyan police have arrested a man who they have described as a “serial killer” suspected to have been behind the gruesome murder of nine women whose mutilated bodies were found in a disused quarry used as a rubbish dump.
Police say Collins Jomaisi Khalusha, 33, confessed to having killed 42 women since 2022, including his own wife.
The suspect was arrested at a bar early on Monday morning as he was watching the Euro final.
There has been shock and outrage in Kenya since the first of the dismembered bodies were found on Friday at the Mukuru quarry in the capital, Nairobi.
“[He] confessed to have lured, killed and disposed of 42 female bodies at the dumping site, all murdered between 2022 and as recent as Thursday,” said Mohamed Amin, head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
Many Kenyans are asking how 42 people could be murdered in the space of two years without police noticing.
Mr Amin said that after his arrest, the suspect led police officers to his house, about 100m (yards) from the crime scene.
The police displayed to the media some of the items said to have been recovered from the suspect’s house, including 10 phones, a laptop, identity cards and personal female clothing.
They also found a machete they “believed was being used to dismember the victims”, and nine sacks like the ones used to dispose of the bodies.
Since Friday, police have cordoned off the dumpsite where the bodies were found in various stages of decomposition.
The victims were aged between 18 and 30 and were all killed in the same way, according to the police.
While the authorities have confirmed that nine bodies have been found so far in the quarry, local residents say the number is higher.
Joseph Waweru, who has been involved in retrieving the bodies, told the BBC he had counted 16 bodies, all severely dismembered.
Police said they were still interrogating the suspect to establish the motive for the killings and he would be arraigned in court on Tuesday.
They said his arrest followed a “forensic analysis” of a mobile phone that belonged to one of the victims, Josephine Mulongo Owino, “where some mobile money transactions were conducted on the very day [she] went missing”.
Post-mortem examinations on the bodies were being conducted, the police said.
They have asked families “who believe that their beloved ones may have fallen prey to these macabre murders” to report to the police.
“It is crystallising that we are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life, who has no respect and dignity,” Mr Amin said.
Emmanuel Ogongo, whose sister went missing on 28 June, said he had identified a body from the dump site that looked like her.
He said the body had the same hairstyle and outfit she was wearing when she disappeared.
Only the torso has been found so far.
A second person with a phone belonging to one of the victims has also been arrested and would be treated either as an accomplice or suspect, he said.
Kenya’s police watchdog earlier said it was investigating whether there was any police involvement in the crimes as the dumpsite is close to a police station.
The officers working there have been transferred, to ensure “fair and unbiased investigations” into the “heinous” deaths, the acting police chief, Douglas Kanja said earlier.
The Independent Police Oversight Authority said “widespread allegations of police involvement in unlawful arrests [and] abductions” meant it was undertaking a preliminary investigation to establish whether there was any police connection.
Hussein Khalid, head of the Haki Africa campaign group, told the BBC that police need to address how the murders happened just metres from a police station.
The discovery of these bodies comes at a difficult time for Kenya’s police.
Human rights groups have accused the police of shooting dozens of people who were demonstrating against planned tax rises earlier this month, some of them fatally.
Many Kenyans are calling for the police to investigate the allegations of abductions and killings from the protests as quickly as they have investigated the Mukuru deaths.
On Friday, Kenya’s police chief Japhet Koome resigned, a day after President William Ruto fired his entire cabinet in the wake of the deadly protests.
The killings are being seen as the latest police failure to adequately deal with crime especially as it happened so close to a police station.
Some Kenyans are questioning why the police have been unable to solve the death of Rita Waeni, whose dismembered body was found earlier this year at a short-term rental apartment in Nairobi.
Like the latest gruesome deaths, Waeni’s brutal murder shocked and angered many Kenyans. It ignited an online campaign urging the protection of women and girls.
Last year Kenyans were horrified after the remains of hundreds of people associated with a doomsday cult were discovered in the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi.
Paul Nthenge Mackenzie went on trial in Mombasa earlier last week on charges of terrorism and murder over the deaths of more than 440 of his followers.
