I AM A SERIAL KILLER TOO

Another man has come forward, claiming to be a killer who has taken the lives of four women in various towns in Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces.

He was arrested in Kaplong town, Sotik, while apparently on the run after killing a woman in a lodging in Keroka town, Nyamira District, some 45 kilometres away.

The 22-year-old man was taken into custody on Saturday at 4pm at the Kaplong bus park, where he had spoken to several drivers and asked for a lift to Uyoma in Rarieda District. His shirt was bloodstained.

Early that morning, police in Keroka had received a report of the death of Ms Davina Amenya, 19, who was found in a room at Obomo Obomo lodging, with her throat lodging, with her throat slit. Police said the man not only claimed to have killed Ms Amenya, but that she was his fourth victim.

The officers are understandably nervous about the man’s claims, coming in the wake of similar allegations by Mr Philip Onyancha, who claims to have killed 17 people. Mr Onyancha claimed that he killed only women and children in bizarre rituals involving the drinking of blood.

Mr Onyancha’s case has become some form of travelling circus, where he is driven to various towns to point out the secret graves of his alleged victims, with the country’s media in tow and crowds baying for his blood.

On Sunday, police said they were investigating claims of killings in Kendu Bay and Katito in Nyanza and Kapsoit in Rift Valley.

Sotik police appeared puzzled by the man’s confessions to serious crimes and handed him over to their counterparts in Nyanza to have his claims checked out.

“The suspect also claimed that he attempted to kill a fifth victim in a lodging in Kisii town but that she escaped,” said Mr Shedrack Maithya, the Nyamira police boss.

A large crowd gathered at Keroka police station hoping to catch a glimpse of the man. Some also wanted to be allowed to lynch him.

Mr Nyang’au Mosoti, the barman at Obomo, said the man had booked a room on Friday night and that he had with him two women. “They left and I don’t know what transpired from that time until Saturday, when we found the body lying in a pool of blood in the room,” Mr Mosoti said.

Mr Elvis Amenya, a brother of the dead woman and a student at Kenyatta University, said his sister was the third born in a family of four. Their mother is a single parent and lives in Matangi village, Masaba North District.

Mr Amenya said his sister, a mother of one, lived in Keroka town and that she dropped out of school in Form Two. On Sunday a joint operation was in full swing to establish if the man’s claims were true.

“I have mobilised scene of crime officers from Rift Valley and Nyanza with a view to establishing whether the suspect we have in custody indeed killed the women he claims to have killed,” Mr Maithya said.

An officer familiar with the investigation, but who cannot be named commenting on an ongoing investigation, said the man had named three accomplices, whom police were looking for.

Officers did not allow journalists to take pictures or interview the suspect, saying it could jeopardise their investigation.

Last week, High Court judge Jessie Lesiit warned the police against conducting investigations in a movie-like manner, with the media in tow, when Mr Onyancha and two other people were taken to court to face murder charges.