‘Confirm’ reign of terror: Suspect linked to 2015 murders
Suspects in the Mawanga murders in Nakuru City: Julius Otieno, Josphat Simiyu, Dennis Mmbolo, Isaac Kinyanjui and Makhoha Wanjala are taken to court yesterday. They were detained for 14 more days pending mental assessments and DNA testing.
In Rod Sadler’s non-fiction masterpiece, “Killing Women: The True Story of Serial Killer Don Miller’s Reign of Terror”, Don Miller is described as a member of a small, deadly, dangerous population; murderers who stalk, capture, torture and kill; murderers who derive sexual and narcissistic gratification from their predation; murderers who maintain a “mask of sanity” appearing normal and harmless.
This came to light when Miller, a former youth pastor in 1978, tried to rape two women but it all backfired and he was arrested.
The police then linked him to the disappearances of four other women. He was offered a plea bargain, after which he led the police to the bodies of the missing women.
And, in a case that is eerily reminiscent of Miller’s reign of terror, police in Nakuru County are holding six men in connection with separate incidents where six women were raped and then killed in Mawanga, Bahati Constituency.
Yesterday, a Nakuru court allowed detectives to hold Mr Evans Michori Kebwaro, Mr Julius Otieno, 27, Mr Josephat Simiyu, 24, Mr Dennis Nmbolo, 25, Mr Isaac Kinyanjui, 18, and Mr Makhoha Wanjala, 25, for 14 days as they conclude their investigations.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has linked the six to the killings of Ms Grace Wanjiru, 21, Ms Susan Wambui, 36, and Ms Diana Tasha, 25.
Police said the killings, which attracted the attention of Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, leading to the transfer of senior security officers in the county, took place between June 15 and June 24.
The police further said that all the women were first raped, then strangled and their bodies burned.
Senior Principal Magistrate Charles Ndegwa allowed the police to hold the suspects for up to two weeks following a miscellaneous application by the investigating officer, Corporal Kennedy Mwachi.
Mr Mwachi had sought more days to have the suspects undergo a mental assessment. The six will also be presented before a medical doctor who will obtain samples for DNA profiling.
Bizarrely, Mr Kebwaro and Mr Simiyu are said to have been first responders in some of the incidents.
Mr Simiyu is said to have even appeared on TV as a first responder in an incident where a mother and her two daughters died in a house fire in Manyani estate.
Mr Simiyu appeared on Ebru TV as a witness narrating how he and another man had tried to rescue Judy Nyambura and her two daughters; Shadiya Wangare, 17, and Limsy Wanjiru, 11.
The three died in their house on June 1. Back then, Nakuru East Deputy Sub-county Police Commander Wilson Nduati said the cause of the fire could not be immediately established.
It was not until Mr Simiyu was arrested in connection with the Mawanga murders and his picture shared by the DCI on social media that residents linked him to the Manyani house fire. During the interview with Ebru TV, Mr Simiyu had given his name as Josephat Juma.
Mr Simiyu said he noticed smoke billowing from the roof of the house and alerted other residents, who then tried unsuccessfully to put out the fire.
“I was connecting water pipes at a construction site. When we got to the scene, we found that there was fire in the first bedroom, but we could not get in because the door was locked from the inside.”
“When we broke down the door, we asked aloud whether there were people inside, but there was no response,” he reportedly said during the interview. Police now believe the man who was doing plumbing work near the scene of crime had a hand in it. They further revealed that the incident took an eerily similar course as the chilling Mawanga Estate killings. In the Mawanga killings, the attackers arrived at their targets’ homes pretending to be employees of a water services company.
They would then rape the women, kill them and set their bodies on fire.
Mr Simiyu was arrested in Kivumbini, Nakuru County, moments after detectives arrested Mr Kebwaro in Keroka, Kisii County, late last week. The Nation has established that Mr Kebwaro lived in Molo, Nakuru County, with his parents and is well known there.
But after the 2007 post-election violence, Mr Kebwaro’s parents, who were affected, opted to leave Molo for Masimba in Kisii County, where they now live.
Yesterday, police said Mr Kebwaro was a man of interest in a spate of killings that took place in Molo between 2014 and 2015, where young girls were raped, killed and their bodies dumped along Molo River.
“Our investigations have so far linked Mr Kebwaro to four other murders that took place in Bahati and Kivumbini in Nakuru City. However, we will be looking into all other possible leads that may unearth more about any other murders in Molo that are still under investigation,” Nakuru County Criminal Investigations boss Anthony Sunguti told Nation.
In June 2014, five schoolgirls went missing on separate days, only for their bodies to be found dumped along River Molo. To date, no one has ever been arrested in connection to the matter.
The minors were defiled before they were either suffocated or strangled to death. Their bodies were then dumped along River Molo.
The Nation talked to one of the survivors who narrated an ordeal that took place in 2014 in Molo.
The woman, who is expected to record a statement this week, said she fought her way out of the hands of one of the suspects, who tried to suffocate her using what looked like a pair of socks.
“He was trying to put a cloth in my mouth,” she said, adding that she reported the matter to her parents but nothing happened after that as she did not know the attacker.
