Six men suspected to have killed four women at Mawanga area of Nakuru have now been linked to three other murders.
Preliminary investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation have placed Evans Michori, Dennis Alusiola, Ficky Wanjala, Julius Omondi, Isaac Kinyanjui and Josphat Simiyu at scenes where the seven were allegedly killed.
Inspector Peter Kamau yesterday told the Nakuru Principal Magistrate that detectives used mobile phones recovered from the suspects to track their locations.
Police added that a tracker of a motorcycle recovered from some of the suspects placed them at various scenes of crime.
So far, the six have been linked to the December 2, 2021, murder of Beatrice Akinyi, and Judy Nyambura, Shadiah Cheupe and Rimsy Wanjiru, who were killed on June 1, this year.
“The six are also suspected to have murdered Grace Wanjiru, 20, on June 15, Susan Wambui, 38, on June 21, and Diana Opicho, 23, on June 24,” said Mr Kamau.
Detectives claim they are also investigating other murders they suspect the six were involved.
According to the police, the gang attacked and robbed women, before raping and killing them by strangulation and setting their houses on fire.
“Families of the victims have identified and confirmed to us that some of the items we recovered belonged to the deceased women,” said Mr Kamau.
“The team is in pursuit of other suspects and owing to the sensitivity of the matter we are in process of placing credible witnesses under protection, hence the need to hold the suspects in custody,” Mr Kamau said.
The police are also waiting for forensic reports from the Government Chemist and DCI laboratory in Nairobi.
“We have extracted DNA samples from the respondents and submitted the same for profiling and analysis. We need to compare them with exhibits recovered from the scenes and during postmortems,” the court was told.
The magistrate allowed the police to detain the suspects. “I note that members of the public have not been at peace due to rampant murders in Nakuru,” said Yvonne Khatambi.
The case will be mentioned on August 2.
