Collins Jumaisi, who is accused of murdering 42 women’s bodies, escapes from a police station along with twelve others.
A manhunt is underway in Kenya for a man who escaped from a Nairobi police cell. The man is said to have confessed to the murder of 42 women after dismembered bodies were found in a quarry.
Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, was described by police as a “vampire, psychopath” after his arrest on July 15. He escaped on Tuesday morning along with 12 other Eritrean migrants without residency papers, Kenyan police spokeswoman Resila Onyango said.
Their escape was discovered when officers routinely visited the police station’s cells to serve breakfast to the prisoners at around 5 a.m. (02:00 GMT), police said in a separate statement.
“When they opened the cell door, they found that 13 prisoners had escaped by cutting through the wire mesh in the sunbathing area,” the statement said, referring to an area of the station where prisoners had access to fresh air.
The police station is located in the upscale Nairobi district of Gigiri, which is home to the regional headquarters of the United Nations and numerous embassies.
Gilbert Masengeli, deputy inspector general of police, said disciplinary action had been taken against eight serving officers after preliminary investigations indicated that “insiders had assisted in the escape”.
Khalusha appeared in court in the Kenyan capital on Friday, where the judge ordered a further 30 days’ detention to give police time to complete their investigation.
Mohamed Amin, the head of the criminal investigation department, said after his arrest that Khalusha confessed to murdering 42 women within two years starting in 2022 and that his wife was his first victim.
“We are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life, who knows no respect and no dignity,” Amin said at the time.
However, the suspect’s lawyer, John Maina Ndegwa, told the court that Khalusha was “tortured” to make the statement. The prosecution denied these allegations.
Ten dismembered bodies of women tied in plastic bags were found in a garbage dump in an abandoned quarry in Nairobi’s Mukuru slum, the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KNCHR) said last month.
The site is just 100 metres from a police station. This put the Kenyan police under scrutiny following their brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations. Human rights groups accused officers of using excessive force.
The state-funded KNCHR said in July that it was conducting its own investigation into the Mukuru case because “any possibility of extrajudicial executions must be ruled out.”
The Kenyan police oversight authority, the Independent Police Oversight Authority, also said it was investigating whether the police were involved in the killings or whether there were “no measures to prevent” the killings.
