A ‘vampire serial killer’ who police say confessed to murdering 42 women has escaped from Kenyan jail in a mass breakout.
Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, was arrested in July after ten bodies and various body parts were found wrapped in plastic bags at a garbage dump in a Nairobi slum.
Jumaisi was being held at a police station in the capital when he escaped along with 12 other inmates, all of them Eritrean citizens, authorities said.
The prisoners escaped by cutting through the wire mesh ceiling and scaling the perimeter wall, in an escape that national police chief Gilbert Masengeli said was “aided by people inside.”
He told reporters that eight officers who were on duty at the time had been suspended and “taken into custody,” adding that the matter was being investigated by the Internal Affairs Unit.
Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, is escorted into Kiambu courts in Kiambu, Kenya, on July 16.
Ten bodies recovered from a dumping ground in a Nairobi slum on July 13
Officers from the criminal detective unit work at the scene at Gigiri police station after the escape.
Police said they discovered the escape when officers made a routine visit to the cells at around 5 a.m. to serve breakfast to the prisoners.
“Upon opening the cell door, they discovered that 13 prisoners had escaped by cutting through the wire mesh of the rest area,” police said, referring to a covered patio at the station where detainees could have access to fresh air.
The 12 Eritreans were arrested for being in Kenya illegally, police said, adding that four others who did not escape were helping with the investigation.
The police station is located in the exclusive Gigiri district of Nairobi, where the regional headquarters of the United Nations and numerous embassies are located.
It is the second time in just six months that a suspect in a high-profile case has escaped custody in Kenya.
Kenyan national Kevin Kangethe, accused of murdering his girlfriend in the United States last year and dumping her body in an airport parking lot, fled a police station in February before being captured about a week later.
Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, was arrested in July after ten bodies and various body parts were found wrapped in plastic bags at a garbage dump in a Nairobi slum.
Officials remove bodies found in plastic bags from a garbage dump on July 13
Gilbert Masengeli briefs the media at Gigiri police station after the escape
Crowds gather after gruesome discovery in Nairobi’s Mukuru slum
A police officer enters the Gigiri police station, after the main suspect in the Kware murder case, Collins Jumaisi, escaped from custody.
Jumaisi had appeared in court in Nairobi on Friday, when the magistrate ordered him to be remanded in custody for a further 30 days to allow police to complete their investigations.
Criminal Investigations Directorate chief Mohamed Amin said after his arrest on July 15 that Jumaisi had confessed to killing 42 women over a two-year period starting in 2022, with his wife being his first victim.
“We are dealing with a vampire, a psychopath,” Amin said then.
Jumaisi claimed he had been abused and tortured, his lawyer told AFP last month.
A spokesman for the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) said in a statement when the bodies were found: “We would like to reassure the public that our investigations will be thorough and will cover a wide range of areas including, but not limited to, possible cultist activity and serial killings.
Onlookers gather at the dumping ground where bodies were found in the Mukuru slum, Nairobi, in July.
Tensions rose at the Mukuru site and local media reported that police fired into the air in an attempt to disperse an angry crowd.
Locals have expressed concern after more bodies were discovered among the rubbish.
Some people on social media have described them as victims of femicide.
Officials inspect the bodies as a crowd of locals looks on.
“We appeal to the public to remain calm and give our detectives the opportunity to bring justice to the victims of this horrendous scene.”
The identities of the dead are still unknown, as is the time the bodies had been in the quarry.
The gruesome find shocked Kenyans already reeling from the so-called Shakahola Forest massacre following the discovery of more than 400 bodies in mass graves near the Indian Ocean coast.
A Kenyan cult leader is accused of inciting his followers to starve themselves to death in preparation for the end of the world and “meet Jesus.”
He faces numerous charges, including terrorism, murder and child cruelty, along with dozens of co-defendants.
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