Kenya police offer a reward for an alleged serial killer

Kenyane police have offered a reward of 1 million shillings ($ 7,700; £ 5,700) for information leading to the arrest of the serial killer alleged Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, more than a year after his exhaust of their guard.

Khalusha was the first suspect in the murder of more than 40 women whose mutilated bodies were discovered in a disused career which has become a discharge in the capital, Nairobi.

Shortly after his arrest, he escaped from the guard, as well as 12 others, after having left a knitted roof and on the scale of a wall of perimeter.

This caused indignation and the police faced a renewed reaction on their inability to track Khalusha more than a year later.

Many Kenyans asked how he could have escaped on August 20, 2024 from what is considered one of the safest police stations, located near the United States Embassy and the United Nations offices in the capital.

Khalid Hussein, an activist who followed the case, told the BBC that the police were “not serious” to resolve the murders of women whom they previously identified as aging between 18 and 30 years.

He alleged that some bodies were still inside career pits and “rotten”.

Mr. Hussein believes that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) announced the award in response to a documentary from the local citizen television station on the inaction of the police.

“So, as usual, they feel embarrassed, they think that they should do something and that they react and they say a reward for shillings. Absolutely useless,” said the activist.

Contacted by the BBC, police spokesperson Michael Mudiri referred questions to the DCI, but added that she had previously addressed “the complexity of this question”, and was “on the right track to resolve it”.

The DCI said in an article on X that the reward of 1 million shillings would be given to “anyone who provides credible information that will help the suspect’s arrest”.

The police also offered a reward last year, but did not specify the amount.

Several police officers were arrested last year for pretending to help Khalusha’s escape, but they were then released on bail.

Many Kenyans asked how the police had not detected that the bodies were left in a career about 100 meters (109 yards) of a police station.

Khalusha would have confessed to his crimes, but his lawyer later declared to a court that he had been tortured.

Addressing the BBC at the time, the lawyer, John Maina Ndegwa, said that the suspect had been “strangled to admit. You could say that he was in distress, terrified and anxious”.

At the time of the arrest of Khalusha, the chief of the DCI, Mohamed Amin, said: “He is crystallizing that we are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life, who has no respect and dignity.”

He had been ready to face accusations of murder in court, just before his disappearance.

Last month, Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen described escape as “regrettable” and a “sad story”.

“I really hope he can be arrested,” he said.