Kenyan police have arrested one Jomaisi Khalisia, 33, 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 said Khalisa confessed to having killed 42 women since 2022, including his own wife.
According to police,the suspect was arrested at a bar early on the morning of Monday,16 July, 20234 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 Head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Mohamed Amin.
According to Amin, after his arrest, the suspect led police officers to his house, about 100m (yards) from the crime scene.
Since Friday, 12 July, 2024, 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.
Police said they were still interrogating the suspect to establish the motive for the killings and he would be arraigned in court on Tuesday, 16 July, 2024.
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”.
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.
