A man who has confessed to killing five children at Moi’s Bridge in Uasin Gishu County was once a popular mason in Makueni but fled to escape trial for defiling two girls, the Nation has established.
Evans Juma Wanjala is locked up at Kitale Police Station. He is said to have committed the crimes between 2019 and last month when homicide detectives pounced on him. On Thursday last week, police were allowed to detain him for 21 more days.
Investigations into his crimes are expected to extend to various townships in the Kibwezi region of Makueni County where he lived in 2018 and 2019 and is facing charges of sexually molesting two girls.
The first incident, involving a 9-year-old, happened in Kibwezi township on September 19, 2018, court documents seen by the Nation show.
The second took place on the outskirts of Kinyambu township barely three months after the first and involved a teenager who had just completed secondary school.
People who interacted with the suspect described him as reserved. Although details on how he arrived in Makueni are scanty, he is believed to have come from neighboring Kajiado County in 2018.
He met his girlfriend Caroline Mwikali in Kambu township, where he once lived. The couple later relocated to a rented house in Kinyambu township, where she was a casual worker at the Kinyambu library.
Terrorised girls and women
The man, who usually kept to himself, spent his days at construction sites in the neighbourhood, multiple accounts say. He presented himself as a specialist in fixing floor tiles, said a landlord, who sought anonymity for fear of victimisation.
Towards the end of 2018, Mr Wanjala raised eyebrows after reports surfaced that he waylaid and terrorised girls and women on their way to and from Kinyambu township.
On a Sunday afternoon in January 2019, he was accosted by an irate mob at the market and beaten up after word went round that he was a sex pest. Police officers patrolling the area responded swiftly and saved his skin.
“We kicked Caroline Mwikali out of the library when we learned that she was cohabiting with a suspected sex pest,” said Patrick Mutiso, the head of the Kinyambu library.
Nobody saw Mr Wanjala and his fiancée leave. They left as they had come. They tiptoed out of their rented house in the wee hours of the night one day and switched off their mobile phones, leaving behind huge debts and a trail of victims yearning for justice.
Mr Wanjala had just secured his freedom after raising Sh200,000 cash bail for the first case involving the 9-year-old and a Sh100,000 surety for the second case involving the teenager as ordered by a Makindu court.
When he failed several times to attend court while out on bond, the court issued an arrest warrant on November 7, 2019.
When word went round that detectives had arrested Mr Wanjala in connection with killing girls, the parents of the two girls he is accused of raping and some of the people he had interacted with him were as shocked as they were overjoyed.
“We hope that the arrest of Evans Juma Wanjala will rejuvenate our cases, which are pending at the Makindu law courts. Meanwhile, the suspect should not be set free until the matters he is facing are concluded,” the distraught mother of one of the girls told the Nation.
Those cautiously optimistic following Mr Wanjala’s arrest include Suzanne Machira, a librarian at the Kinyambu library who helped Ms Mwikali raise the required bail to secure her boyfriend’s freedom.
“They fled with my Sh15,000. I desperately tried in vain to recover the money but when they fled and switched off their phones I hit a wall. The arrest has renewed hope that I will recover the money,” she said.
Ms Machira’s experience mirrors that of Mzee Julius Mwanzia Kikaakaa, who gave out the logbook of his brand-new motorcycle and Sh50,000 he borrowed from a relative to secure the man’s freedom.
He was persuaded by one of his granddaughters who is known to Ms Mwikali. The ailing peasant farmer has been struggling to raise the remaining Sh50,000. The court expects the money by September 2.
“The Makindu law courts should surrender my money and motorcycle logbook now that Evans Juma is behind bars,” the 74-year-old told the Nation at his home in Kalungu village.
