Kenya: what is the Collins Jumaisi Khalusha affair?

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
Kenya: what is the Collins Jumaisi Khalusha affair?

A suspect was arrested this Monday in Kenya after the discovery of 9 bodies in a landfill in the capital. Collins Jumaisi Khalusha quickly confessed to the murders of 42 women, according to police.

Kenyan police forces have discovered at least nine bodies at a dump in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, since Friday July 12. The first three bodies were initially found. Then on Saturday, five new bodies were located by the police, including “three contained female body parts” dismembered. The perpetrator is believed to be a man named Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, described as “psychopath serial killer” by the police. The ages of the victims range from 18 to 30 years old for the first eight bodies found.

“No respect for human life”

Aged 33, Collins Jumaisi Khalusha is the alleged perpetrator. Heconfessed to luring, killing and disposing of 42 bodies of women on the landfill site » in Mukuru, in the south of the Kenyan capital, the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Amin Mohammed, said at a press conference.

For the police, Collins Jumaisi Khalusha is a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life”added the head of the Criminal Investigation Department. A machete, “which according to us, was used to dismember the victims”was at the suspect’s home, continued Amin Mohamed. For him, this man is a“vampire”.

Among the victims is the suspect’s wife. “Unfortunately, and it is very sad, the suspect claimed that his first victim was his wife (…) whom he strangled, before dismembering her body and dumping it” in the landfill, he said. According to initial interrogations, all the victims were killed “in the same way”according to the suspect. The murders would have produced between 2022 and July 11, 2024. The ages of the victims range from 18 to 30 years old.

This tragedy demonstrates the insecurity faced by women in Kenya. “This horrific act is an urgent reminder of the ongoing fight against gender-based violence that we must lead as a nation”reacted in a press release the Kenyan State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action.

Suspect arrested in Kenya

Collins Jumaisi Khalusha was arrested this morning in front of an establishment “where he came to watch the final of the European football championship” which pitted Spain against England on Sunday evening. The suspect was found after analyzing the cell phone of one of the victims. According to authorities, at the time of his arrest, the individual “was luring another victim“.

Moreover, “a second suspect (…) was arrested with one of the phones of one of the victims”specifies Amin Mohamed.

Police criticized

On Sunday, tension was high around the landfill. The population gathered there and the police briefly fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. This angered those present.

The police are under fire after the discovery of the first bodies in this dump. And for good reason, it is located less than 100 meters away of a police station. The acting head of the national police, Douglas Kanja, had pledged to carry out “transparent, thorough and rapid investigations”. He also claims that the police officers from the neighboring police station had been transferred elsewhere. On Friday, the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) announced it was investigating a possible police involvement in these murders.

This affair takes place in a tense climate. Kenyan security forces have been under pressure since the deaths of dozens of people in June. A tragic event which occurred during recent demonstrations against the government’s tax increase plans.

Also read: Why are we fascinated by serial killers?