Serial killer who murdered 42 Kenyan women, including his wife, arrested

In a shocking case, a man in Kenya has confessed to killing 42 women over the past two years. Described by the police as a "serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for life,” Collins Jumaisi Khalusha “lured, killed, and disposed of 42 female bodies." Nine of these bodies have been recovered. The recovered bodies were "severely dismembered, in different states of decomposition, and left in sacks", the police had earlier informed.

The 33-year-old serial killer was enjoying the Euro 2024 final at a club in Soweto, east of the capital Nairobi when he was arrested, Kenya’s director of criminal investigations, Mohamed Amin, told journalists on Monday.

“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. Post-mortem of the nine bodies that were recovered is being done, acting police inspector general, Douglas Kanja said.
Officers recovered a machete, 12 nylon sacks, a pair of industrial rubber gloves, a hard drive, and eight smartphones from "his single-room rented house", Amin said. He reportedly "led the officers" to his home upon arrest.

Amin informed that his wife was his first victim whom he “strangled to death before dismembering her body and disposing it at the site", as per Khalusha's confession.

“From his interrogation, all his victims have been murdered in like manner,” he said.

How was the serial killer arrested?

The police found the mobile phone of one of his victims and checked it for possible clues. The phone belonged to Josphine Mulongo Owino and showed mobile money transactions done on the day she went missing. The financial transactions led the police to the suspect, said Amin.

Residents of Kware, in Nairobi’s Mukuru kwa Njenga area, found the first six bodies on Friday in an abandoned quarry which is currently “filled with water and used as a dumpsite”. The suspect lived extremely near to the dumpsite which also has a police station nearby. Questions are being raised about how he managed to hide his heinous acts for two years

Calls for safety of Kenyan women

The serial killings have led to a massive hue and cry in the country. Amid increasing cases of femicide and other gender-based violence, a group of female leaders have called for enhanced protections for Kenyan women. They want the re-establishment of gender desks at police stations countrywide and well-trained officers to address cases of gender-based violence.