An angry mob on Friday attacked and killed a self-confessed child killer, Masten Wanjala, in his hometown located in western Kenya, two days after he escaped from police custody. Bungoma County Assistant County Commissioner Cornelius Nyaribai confirming the incident said Wanjala was killed early morning at about 6.45am Kenyan time.
The 20-year-old, who recently confessed to killing 13 children after sexually molesting them and drinking their blood, escaped from a police station in Nairobi on Tuesday night under unclear circumstances; he was to be charged in court the following day. Three officers, who were on duty at the Jogoo Road Police Station at the time the deceased was being held, were detained as police carried out investigations into his escape.
Following Wanjala’s escape, it was found that the window to his cell was not broken and neither was the door, which could apparently only be locked or opened from the outside. Something else that puzzled investigative officers is that the cells at the police station are located behind the reporting desk, meaning no one can enter or leave without the duty officer noticing. The three police officers accused of aiding Wanjala to escape from custody were on Friday released on bail; senior resident magistrate Jane Kamau ruled that it would be a violation of the officers’ rights if the court detained them. Kamau further ordered that the investigations into the matter be conducted in the next seven days and the file closed by the eighth day.
Wanjala had been arrested in July this year in connection with two missing children aged 13 and 12. Following his arrest, he led police officers to where he allegedly said he had dumped the bodies of the minors in the country’s Spring Valley Estate, Westlands in Nairobi. He is also said to have later confessed to a string of secret murders spanning six years and in more than four counties where he claimed he executed all his victims single-handedly, and some with his bare hands. He took police officers to at least ten murder scenes, including in the capital Nairobi (5), Kajiado County (2), Machakos County (2) and Bungoma County (1).
In Bungoma County, he is said to have led detectives to several scenes where he claimed to have buried some of his victims. In a village in the country’s Kimilili Constituency, one of the victims, nine-year-old Emmanuel Wafula, was reportedly defiled and killed before his body was dumped in a pit latrine in the area in February 2019.
Wanjala admitted to kidnapping and slaughtering at least 13 children in Nairobi and its environs between 2019 and 2021, part of a period in which the country had also been having various reports emerging of abductions of children. In his confessions to police officials, he allegedly admitted to killing the children in the guise of a football coach.
