Self-confessed child killer shows where he buried his victims in Bungoma

Self-confessed serial child killer Masten Wanjala on Wednesday led a team of police officers from the homicide team to scenes in Bungoma County where he had confessed to have buried some of his victims.

Wanjala confessed to a secret murderous campaign spanning six years and in more than four counties where he executed all his victims single-handedly, some with his bare hands.

For every target he eliminated in Bungoma, Machakos, Nairobi and Kajiado, he marked the calendar and kept a record of his dark victories by scribbling names on dates.

Like a vampire, the suspect sucked the blood of some of his victims as he strangled them to death.

“The victims were either forced to drink, sniff or were sprayed with the substance before the horrendous acts were committed on them,” Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss George Kinoti said in a report after Wanjala’s arrest.

On Wednesday, a team headed by DCI homicide unit boss Martin Nyuguto pitched tent in the county where the 20-year-old man hails from.

The team visited Sosio village in Kamukuywa Ward, Kimilili Constituency where one of the victims, nine-year-old Emmanuel Wafula, was defiled and killed before his body was dumped in a pit latrine in the area in February 2019.

The minor’s decomposing body was discovered days later by a neighbour who informed residents.

Irked residents

The death of the Standard Two pupil at Kingstar Academy irked residents who stormed the homestead where the body was found and torched it before destroying properties and crops.

Police had also arrested Haron Ajega, the owner of the homestead where the body was found in the latrine on suspicion of being behind the killing of the minor.

Mr Ajenga died in August last year at Webuye County Hospital after battling some illness.

Mary Ajega, his widow, said that her husband, who was out on bond, died due to stress after being accused of being behind the death of the minor.

On Wednesday, her shock, joy and disappointment all rolled into one, were still fresh with the knowledge that it was someone else that had committed the heinous act.

"Those police officers who came to probe the cause of the minor’s death said that they couldn't believe that the 73-year-old man could have defiled the minor. Now, all I want is justice for my husband who was falsely accused,” she said.

Gladys Wafula, the mother of the minor, said that she has not yet come to terms with the loss of her second-born child whom she loved very much.

Jovial

"My son was very jovial and we all thought that it was the old man who had killed him, only for us now to be told that it was not Mzee Ajenga who killed him but Masten,” she said.

She asked police to move with speed and prosecute Wanjala for killing her son.

The detectives said that they will be in Chwele on Thursday locating another scene where Wanjala buried another victim as they piece together the finer details for the case.

Residents who knew Wanjala and who spoke to the Nation said that he was a very quiet and polite young man who played soccer with other boys in the neighbourhood.

Wanjala’s father, who lives in Namuyemba village in Kabuchai Constituency, divorced his mother before he was born and she went back to Machakos where she hails from.

Chwele, where the detectives are headed Thursday, was the place where Augustine Mukhisa, 13, was believed to have been killed by Wanjala.

Stashed in a sack

Mukhisa’s body was found stashed in a sack and dumped in a pit latrine next to his father’s house.

Another victim of Wanjala, only identified as 12-year-old Austin from Kitengela, is said to have been strangled and his body dumped into a sewer along General Waruinge Street in Nairobi. This body is yet to be recovered.

Then there is a 13-year-old boy, only identified as Josee, who was picked from Mlolongo and, just like Austin, he was thrown into a sewer along General Waruinge Street in Nairobi. His remains, too, are yet to be recovered.

Musa, his other victim, was found strangled, thrown in a sack and his body dumped at Eastleigh’s 12th Street roundabout.

The body was taken to the City Mortuary where it was later positively identified by relatives and buried.

Last December, Wanjala confessed to have picked up two street boys from Eastleigh and Mathare and strangled them separately then dumped their bodies at an unknown place.

On June 30 and July 7 this year, the suspect also kidnapped and strangled 13-year-old Charles Opindo Bala and 12-year-old Junior Mutuku Musyoka.

These two murders brought his nefarious campaign to an end after he was traced and cornered by detectives.

The suspect had in July led detectives to the scene where decomposing bodies were found in Nairobi near Kabete Approved School and the other one in a thicket near Spring Valley in Westlands.

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