Self-confessed killer to show graves of three more victims 

Although the identities of the people he purports to have buried in the three known graves are yet to be ascertained, police fear that Kipchirchir may have killed more people.

“He has promised to show more graves, all of which he says are in Mogotio. We are yet to know who the victims are, but after our interrogation, the suspect has agreed to take us there,” Mogotio sub-county DCI boss Luka Tumbo told the Nation.

Mr Tumbo said police were expecting to exhume at least three bodies buried in different locations in Mogotio by the end of this week. 

The suspect has already revealed four graves containing the remains of his lover Veronica Kanini, his former wife Purity Chebet and their eighteen-month-old son Ezra, and forest warden Samwel Murathi Njoroge.

Mr Tumbo told the Nation by phone yesterday that because of the suspect’s recent revelations, the police had intensified their investigations.

They were trying to gather missing-person reports from police stations in Baringo and Nakuru counties to establish whether some of those unaccounted for were also Kipchirchir’s victims.

Abduction and killing

“We are not piling pressure on him; we are just allowing him to tell us (what he knows). So far, he has been cooperative,” Mr Tumbo added.

Kipchirchir, a casual labourer, has been in custody at the Mogotio Police Station since he was arrested on December 8 in connection with the abduction and killing of Ms Kanini, 42, who was a businesswoman in Nakuru.

He led detectives to the banks of the Mogotio River, where the body of Ms Kanini was exhumed in November.

The remains of his wife Chebet and lastborn son Ezra, who were reportedly killed months before the Nakuru businesswoman, were also exhumed on the banks of Mogotio River in December.

A few days later, Kipchirchir confessed that in 2012, while making charcoal illegally in the Kiptunga forest, he hacked his fourth victim, forest guard Njoroge, with an axe and buried his body in a shallow grave deep in the forest.

The chilling murders of the four have shocked residents of Nakuru and Baringo counties, revealing how a slight provocation caused the victims to pay the ultimate price.

To ensure the killings were successful, Kipchirchir used his meek demeanour as an enabler - luring his victims to slaughter without raising suspicion.

Like the other victims, Kanini, who hawked seat covers and curtains, had trusted Kipchirchir as a close confidant who would help her attract more clients. But she was killed when she least expected it.

In his confession to the police, Kipchirchir said that Kanini, who lived in Nakuru, had been very close to him and he would pay her bus fare to and from Mogotio. He said the woman later started ignoring him and so he hatched a plan to eliminate her.

Shallow graves

Kipchirchir lured Kanini to her death on the evening of November 12, 2020 by informing her that a customer needed seat covers on the farm where he was harvesting tomatoes that day.

Innocently, she agreed to proceed to the farm near the Molo River, where Kipchirchir demanded that she pay him Sh9,800, money that he claimed he had spent on her bus fare and other expenses.

When he threatened to kill her, Kanini made calls to relatives and borrowed Sh3,000, telling them that she was admitted at a hospital. When she did not find enough money, Kipchirchir used a strap from Kanini’s handbag to strangle her. He then dug a shallow grave with a jembe he had hidden on the farm and buried her body. He threw her belongings into the Molo River.

He was arrested on November 13 after being found in possession of Kanini’s phone. He then revealed where he had buried Kanini’s body.

Kipchirchir later confessed that wife Chebet and their son had also been his victims. He said he had feared that Chebet, whom he had earlier assaulted leading to his imprisonment, would report him to the authorities again.

On the day the two disappeared in September, Kipchirchir claimed, he had tricked her that morning into joining him on the farm to harvest tomatoes.

He ordered his wife to follow him and he killed the two by drowning them in the Molo River before burying them in shallow graves two kilometres apart. He told the police that he killed his son because he feared he would pester him on the whereabouts of his mother.

In the Murathi Njoroge case, the suspect claimed he killed the forest guard because he refused to take a Sh1,200 bribe to release him. He tricked the warden into bending down by asking him to help him bury the charcoal. He then used his axe to hack him to death.

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