Nairobi — Masten Wanjala, a 20-year-old man, who captured the attention of the nation after confessing to a series of child disappearances culminating in the murder of at least ten children, is dead.
Wanjala is reported to have been murdered by an irate mob in Bungoma days after he escaped from police custody in Nairobi ahead of his arraignment in court.
Bungoma Assistant County Commissioner Cornelius Nyaribai confirmed his death on Friday.
Police had launched a manhunt for Wanjala who is considered to be a threat to the public, especially children, who was arrested some time in July but had been in custody since after investigators, on at least two occasions, asked for his plea taking to be deferred to allow them time to conclude investigations.
Soon after his arrest, he took police to at least six murder scenes in Nairobi’s Shauri Moyo and in Western Kenya where he had dumped the bodies and was taken to court days later.
In Shauri Moyo, Nairobi, police said he led detectives to scenes where he confessed to killing and dumping two minors. Another body was recovered in Westlands.
Wanjala also led the detectives to Kabete during the search where they recovered two more victims’ bodies from a river believed have been killed by the suspect.
The suspect is said to have committed other murders in Machakos, Bungoma.
“At the last court appearance, the ODPP made an application for Wanjala to undergo a mental assessment at Mathari Hospital for purposes of presenting him to the High Court to face murder charges,” the public prosecutor said.
Police were initially allowed at least 30 days to detain him so as to complete investigations but kept asking for extensions as the suspect claimed he was yet to take detectives to more murder scenes.
He was detained at the Jogoo Road Police Station and was due in court on October 13, but officers said they discovered him missing while verifying names of listed suspects who were also due in court for various crimes.
“We found him missing and no one knows how he escaped,” one senior police officer told Capital FM News, “he must have escaped on Tuesday.”
Three police officers on duty during the time of his escape were arraigned in court on Thursday but they did not take a plea after investigators asked fro more time to interrogate them.
Police described Wanjala as a “bloodthirsty vampire,” saying he killed his victims, “in the most callous manner, sometimes through sucking blood from their veins before executing them.”
The murders, targeting 12- and 13-year-olds, stretch back five years and the bodies of several children feared to have died in his hands have yet to be found.