As millions across the world were glued to their screens watching the Euro 2024 final match between England and Spain, Kenyan detectives were busy in a nocturnal sting operation to capture a man believed to be the mastermind of macabre killings and dumping of bodies at Kware dumpsite in Embakasi, Nairobi.
Exactly one hour after the match ended, some locals in Kayole who had met at a joint to follow the entreating clash were still talking about the results when a contingent of police officers pounced on one of the fans.
Unknown to them, the nabbed man happened to be Collins Jomaisu Khalisia, 33, who is said to have orchestrated the heinous crime acts of murdering, dismembering and later on disposing of the bodies of his unsuspecting victims at the now infamous ‘quarry of death’.
By 8am on Monday, Mr Jomaisu is said to have revealed shocking details to the sleuths who were interrogating him in a tell-all confession where he allegedly admitted to have killed some 42 women between 2022 and July 11, 2024.
Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin (right) and the acting Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja speak to the media at the DCI headquarters in Nairobi on July 15, 2024.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group
Briefing the country on the updates of the Kware dumpsite saga, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) chief Mohammed Amin on Monday said the suspect was smoked out using a mobile signal that had been on their radar.
“It is the transaction of mobile money transfer using Josephine Mulongo Owino’s (one of the victims) phone number that led detectives to the suspect,” said Mr Amin.
His first victim, the suspect allegedly confessed, was his wife, identified as Imelda, who he said he killed in 2022 after she ran down a business that he had opened for her.
“He told us that he killed his wife out of bitterness. That he chopped her and dumped her at Kware but all these statements are subject to investigations. He is a person full of vengeance and hatred,” DCI Amin said, adding that the suspect had a “predilection for beautiful women”.
It was not immediately clear how the crime busters arrived at that conclusion given that Mr Amin and his team did not provide photographic evidence of the dozens of women the suspect is said to have killed.
Moments before he was busted, police say the suspect was actively luring his would-be next victim, a woman identified as Susan, who has since been invited to record a statement.
Officers involved in the raid said the suspect stays about 100 metres from Kware dumpsite — an abandoned quarry from which at least nine bodies of women had been retrieved by Monday evening.
DCI Director Mohamed Amin accompanied by Acting Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja walks past exhibits recovered from the Kware murder suspect on display at the DCI headquarters in Nairobi on July 15, 2024.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation
Mr Amin said that the suspect, who he termed a “psychopathic serial killer with no respect for human life” led sleuths to the dumpsite after confessing to the killings.
Several paraphernalia believed to have been used by Mr Jomaisu were also found in his house and were displayed to the media at the DCI headquarters.
They included 24 SIM cards, eight smartphones, two feature phones, one laptop, one hard drive, two flash drives, one memory card, one machete and 12 nylon sacks.
Others were a pair of industrial rubber gloves, one pink female handbag, two female panties, five rolls of bhang, four clear cellotape rolls, one nylon rope, one reflector jacket, two title deeds, two notebooks and other assorted documents.
“We believe that this machete is the one that he (the suspect) was using to dismember his victims. We are likely to arrest more people because we believe he was not acting alone,” DCI Amin said.
Another unidentified suspect was also arrested in connection with the Kware incident after he was caught in possession of a mobile phone belonging to one of the victims, who was identified by her family at the City Mortuary.
This second suspect, the police said, will, after being interrogated, be of great assistance in the case, either as a witness or as an accomplice.
Although the police said they had cracked one of the country’s most shocking murder cases, locals in Kware questioned the entire operation, claiming it was a ruse hatched to cover up the truth.
Kenya Red Cross officials carry a body bag with sacks retrieved from the Kware dumpsite in Pipeline on July 13, 2024.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
How this man managed to live amongst the people of Kware — a very densely populated area — lured women, had sexual relations with some of them, and ended up killing, dismembering their bodies and disposing them of, without ever being noticed, remains a mystery to Mukuru residents.
For starters, the locals told the Nation that they had never seen anyone resembling the man whose photo was shared by the DCI, and, therefore, do not know who the police have arrested.
This fact alone made it difficult for this reporter to locate the home of the man soon to be presented in court to answer to crimes most foul in the country.
“We cannot help you trace the home of someone we have never seen. Neighbours would have heard or seen something suspicious and reported the matter,” Joe, a youth in the area, said.
They also said they would have, within a short time, felt the stench of decaying human bodies that the man allegedly hid in his house before disposing them at the dumpsite.
“No one knows who this man is. I am a local and an elder in this area and since the photo was released, not a single person living here in Kware or Mukuru knows this Collins that is being accused of committing these murders,” Mr Enock Adera, an elder, told the Nation.
His sentiments were echoed by tens of youth who demanded to be told the true identity of the suspect, saying they will not fall for anything other than the truth.
When asked by the media to present or provide another photo of the suspect during the press briefing, Mr Amin said doing so would “tamper with the investigations” but said he would be presented in court during his arraignment.
Homicide detectives mark bags with human remains recovered from the Kware dumpsite on July 13, 2024.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The country’s top detective also dismissed claims that the police would never have discovered the dumped bodies had it not been for the dream by the family members of Josephine Mulongo Owino, one of the victims.
In their narration, two family members said that their kin, the late Owino, appeared to them in a dream and told them that she was lying in the cold at the dumpsite.
This prompted the family to conduct a search at the scene and in doing so, stumbled on several other bodies.
“We are not dreamers, we do not believe in dreaming. Even before Josephine prophesied, we had our work cut out for us,” Mr Amin said.
