Kenyan police arrest suspected serial killer after dismembered bodies of nine women found

Collins Jumaisi is accused of murdering his wife and 41 other women

Kenyan police have arrested a suspected serial killer following the discovery of decapitated bodies of several women at a quarry in Nairobi.

Collins Jumaisi, 33, has admitted to murdering 42 women including his wife, police said, adding they have apprehended a “second suspect”.

Mr Jumaisi was held at a club in Soweto, east of Nairobi, at 3am on Monday. He was watching the Euro 2024 final, police said.

“On interrogation, the suspect confessed to having lured, killed, and disposed of 42 female bodies at the dumping site, all murdered between 2022 and 11 July 2024,” Amin Mohamed, head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, said.

“Unfortunately, and this is very sad, the suspect alleged that his first victim was his wife who he strangled to death, before dismembering her body and disposing of it at the same site. It is crystallising that we are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life."

The arrest came after police found nine dismembered bodies in varying stages of decomposition from the Mukuru slum in the south of the capital.

Volunteers carry a body of an unknown person retrieved from a dumpsite at Mukuru in Nairobi, Kenya, on 12 July 2024 (Reuters)

Police said they located Mr Jumaisi by tracking his phone. “It is the transaction of mobile money transfer using Josphine Owino’s phone number that led detectives to tracking the suspect," Mr Amin said, referring to one of his alleged victims.

"We have a second suspect who was caught with one of the handsets from one of the victims,” he was quoted as saying by CBS News.

Owino disappeared on 26 June from the Mukuru slum and her body was among those found from the dumpsite, her sister said.

The investigators said the accused “led officers to his single room rented house” about 100 metres away from the crime scene.

They have recovered several cell phones from the room along with identity cards, a machete police believe was used to hack the victims, industrial rubber gloves, rolls of tape and a dozen nylon sacks similar to those in which the deceased were found.

People gather as bodies are retrieved from a dumpsite in the Mukuru slum (Reuters)

How the bodies were discovered remains unclear.

Police told the Associated Press the bodies were found after relatives of one of the missing women claimed to have had a dream in which she directed them to search the quarry. The relatives asked a local diver to help and he discovered the bodies wrapped in sacks.

Police suspected a cult or serial killer operating in the area after the mutilated remains were found.

A volunteer searches through a dumpsite for human remains in the Mukuru slum on 14 July 2024 (AFP via Getty)

There were initially concerns after the remains were found that they could be linked to young protesters allegedly abducted by security forces during the recent street demonstrations in the country.

Police have given no such indication while a government spokesperson shared a statement on X on Friday saying authorities were analysing samples to identify the deceased.

A statement signed by human rights groups over the weekend urged Kenya’s security agencies "to expedite investigations into all reports of enforced disappearances”.

Some residents and activists have also asked for setting up gender desks amid concerns over gender-based violence.

“Those women might have been killed today, but which woman is next in line?” lawmaker Leah Sankaire Sopiato was quoted as saying by CNN.

“It is so sad that someone who killed 42 people was still roaming out there. Women’s lives must count and women’s lives must be protected.”