Five key questions over bodies in Mukuru quarry

The arrest of an alleged serial killer in Kenya has enraged the nation – with many feeling the police have questions to reply.

Police say Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, confessed to killing 42 ladies – although his lawyer advised a courtroom on Tuesday he was tortured into a confession.

It is the most recent twist in a perplexing story that adopted the current discovery of the dismembered stays of 9 bodies wrapped in plastic at a disused quarry, which is used as garbage tip and is near a police put up in the capital, Nairobi.

Many persons are discovering it laborious to know that the police had been unable to detect that bodies had been being left round 100m (328ft) from considered one of their places of work in the casual settlement of Mukuru Kwa Njenga.

Residents have criticised officers for his or her “laxity and unprofessionalism” in coping with the crime.

In response, performing police chief Douglas Kanja introduced on Sunday that the officers from Kware police put up close to the scene had been transferred.

It will not be clear whether or not they have been questioned over how the deaths went unnoticed.

But given the power’s poor human rights document, the police watchdog mentioned it was enterprise a preliminary investigation to determine whether or not there was any police connection.

What is much more baffling is how a member of the general public got here to find them.

The household of Josephine Owino, who had gone lacking, says she got here to considered one of them “in a dream” and helped level them in the correct path.

Diana Keya, Ms Owino’s cousin, advised Citizen TV that the household then paid some younger males close to the garbage tip to comb by way of the particles.

That was how 9 severely mutilated bodies had been discovered on Friday. They had been wrapped in nylon baggage, which had been tied with rope.

The first assertion by police mentioned the “alarm was raised” by the general public.

When questioned later the pinnacle of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin mentioned: “We are not dreamers and we do not believe in dreams.”

Police mentioned the bodies recovered had been in completely different phases of decomposition, suggesting that the victims had been killed at completely different instances.

In the now-disputed confession, the police say Mr Khalusha allegedly admitted to murdering the ladies over a interval of two years.

What will not be clear, although, is whether or not the stays had been dumped over that point or extra just lately.

Hussein Khalid, the manager director of rights group Haki Africa, advised the BBC that the police’s model of occasions had “a lot of loopholes”.

After not apparently suspecting something for 2 years the police then made an arrest in lower than three days after the invention of the bodies.

On Monday, police mentioned Mr Khalusha was detained at a bar in the small hours of that morning whereas watching the Euro last soccer match.

They exhibited to the media among the objects mentioned to have been recovered from the suspect’s home – additionally near the place the bodies had been discovered – together with 10 telephones, a laptop computer, id playing cards and private feminine clothes.

The police mentioned that they had traced Mr Khalusha’s whereabouts after geo-locating the cell phone of considered one of his alleged victims.

Mr Khalusha’s lawyer has questioned the validity of the proof.

Only one physique has been recognized up to now – that of 24-year-old Roseline Ongogo.

Her brother Emmanuel Ongogo advised the BBC she went lacking on 28 June after she left the home to search for informal work.

He mentioned the household went to the morgue after they heard bodies had been recovered from Mukuru.

They recognized her as she in the identical garments she had disappeared sporting and had the identical coiffure.

The police additionally allege that Mr Khalusha’s spouse was his first sufferer and say her id card was discovered among the many belongings of different allegedly victims.

The household of Ms Owino, who mentioned they dreamt about her whereabouts, advised the BBC they had been nonetheless ready for an identification.

The discovery has introduced again recollections of the brutal homicide of 20-year-old Rita Waeni in January.

Her dismembered physique was discovered at a short-term rental condo in Nairobi. The case is but to be solved.

The demise triggered nationwide demonstrations in opposition to the rising circumstances of femicide and different violence in opposition to ladies.

Amnesty International mentioned greater than 500 circumstances of femicide had been recorded in Kenya between 2016 and 2023.

All the bodies recovered from the garbage tip are feminine.

A handful of elected ladies leaders who converged at morgue requested the federal government to hurry up the investigations and put an finish to such violence.

When requested what the police had been doing to handle circumstances of femicide and violence in opposition to ladies, spokesperson Resila Onyango mentioned she couldn’t tackle that challenge particularly – however she advised the BBC that the work of the police was “to protect life and property of everyone”.