Chilling murders and abductions of children that shook the country

At least 242 children aged 18 and below were reported missing between January and December 2020. [Courtesy]

This year saw a rise in chilling cases of abduction and murder of children, leaving parents and guardians worried.

The defenseless and unsuspecting children were killed and their bodies dumped miles away from their homes.

In July,  two serial killers confessed to the police that they had killed dozens of children and even led investigative officers to the crime scenes, where they reportedly committed the heinous crimes.

In Nairobi, Masten Wanjala, 20, confessed to having killed at least 10 children, dumping their bodies in thickets and rivers within Nairobi.

He later was reported to have escaped from the Jogoo Road Police Station hours before he could be arraigned to face the law. He was found at his home in Bungoma, where irate neighbours lynched him.

For five years, Wanjala is said to have been luring children and would take them to secluded places, drug them, and sometimes, drink their blood.

His arrest by Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers in Kajiado came after two boys who were watching a football match in Biafra in Eastleigh disappeared, only for one of them, Mutuku Musyoka, 12, to be found at the City Mortuary.

Wanjala had then taken police to document at least 10 murder scenes, including five in Nairobi, two in Kajiado, two in Machakos and one in Bungoma.

Masten Wanjala confessed to having killed at least 10 children. [Courtesy]

Chilling confession

In his confessions to the police, the suspect allegedly admitted to killing the children after disguising himself as a football coach between 2019 and 2021.

Kilometres away in Uasin Gishu, Evans Juma Wanjala, 33, another suspected serial killer accused of abduction, defilement and killing of five children from Moi’s Bridge was arrested on June 16.

After spending a month in police custody, he confessed to having killed five girls below the age of 15. But before strangling the minors to death, police reports show that he defiled them.

Juma led a team of experts, including the DCI, Homicide and forensic officers from Nairobi, to document the various scenes within Moi’s Bridge, where he confessed to having killed and dumped the bodies of his victims.

According to the DCI, the suspect committed the offences between December 2019 and June 2021 when he was captured on CCTV footage leading his latest victim, 13-year-old Linda Cherono. Cherono went missing on June 11 and her body was found on June 15 near Baharini dam.

Stacked in a sack

Another victim, Mary Elusa, 14, went missing on December 15, 2020, and her body was discovered the next day stacked in a sack in a napier grass plantation just next to Kapkatet dam.

Grace Njeri, 12, was reported to have disappeared on May 21, 2020, and her mutilated, decomposed body parts were found on June 18, 2020, at Soronoi farm.

Another victim Stayce Nabiso, 10, also went missing on December 31, 2019, and her body recovered along the Railway line next to River Nzoia on January 1, 2020.

Lucy Wanjiru, 15, went missing in January 2020 and her body was found in a thicket in Tuiyabei, next to a cattle dip. Detectives established that Juma was not a first-time offender. He had pending warrants of arrest against him issued by Makindu and Kajiado courts in sexual offence cases facing him.

Juma, who is now on remand at the Eldoret GK Prison was recently denied bond by the High Court in Eldoret. He is on trial for the killing of Cherono, Nabiso, and Elusa even as the DCI continues with investigations on the murder of two other victims.

Moi's Bridge murder suspect Evans Wanjala in Eldoret, July 2021. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

Justice Reuben Nyakundi in his ruling noted that the prosecution had provided compelling reasons warranting denial of bail.

Other horrific murders include that of eight-year-old Shantel Nzembi, who was kidnapped in May. The minor was kidnapped in Kitengela in Kajiado County. Her abductors demanded Sh300,000 ransom, only for the girl to be found dead days later.

In June, 11-year-old Priscilla Naserian from Kajiado went missing. Her body was later found dumped in a bush a few kilometres from her home.

Body exhumed

In the latest incident, the body of a one-and-a-half-year-old buried along the riverbank of River Molo in Mogotio, Baringo County was exhumed by detectives on Monday.

Ezra’s body had been buried in a shallow grave 10 metres away from where her mother’s had been buried.

Moses Kipchirchir led the police to shallow graves along the river banks of River Molo where he had buried his wife Purity Chebet, 24, and the one-and half-year-old son.

Mogotio DCIO Luka Tumbo said the man confessed to having strangled the woman to death. The body of the woman had been buried with the hands and legs tied with a rope.

Chebet’s body had been buried 10 metres away from the scene where the suspect had led the police on November 23 to exhume the body of Nakuru businesswoman he is accused of killing.

Kipchirchir has been in police custody since November 13 when he was arrested over the murder of businesswoman Veronicah Kanini, 42, whom he allegedly abducted and killed on November 12.

In September, a Nakuru doctor killed his two children aged five and three before attempting suicide.

Dr James Gakara later passed on while receiving treatment at a Nakuru hospital. Gakara is suspected to have killed his two children by injecting them with drugs before injecting himself with the same substance on September 18.

Post-mortem tests did not give conclusive results on the cause of the death of Gakara and his two children.

In October, grief-stricken residents of Miti Mingi village in Gilgil watched as the police moved the body of a minor, who was killed by a 49-year-old man, who later committed suicide.

Dr James Gakara. [Courtesy]

In what appeared to be a planned murder, Salim Said, who was a farmhand in the area, stabbed Naomi Nyarangi, 17, on the neck using a kitchen knife before hanging himself in a fodder store.

Suicide note

When the police finally cut down the rope sending his body into a free fall, they found a suicide note in his pocket indicating that he was in a relationship with the Form Three girl and intended to marry her.

“He had written how he wanted to marry the girl and that her parents were aware of their relationship. He also listed items that he had gifted the family, which to him was like dowry for the girl,” said Gilgil Sub-County Police Commander John Onditi.

Nyarangi’s uncle Peter Maroro, however, denied knowledge of their relationship but acknowledged that Said had been of great help to his family.

Such cases became rampant that the DCI cautioned parents to monitor how their children use social media and the people they interact with.

According to a report by Missing Child Kenya, many children have vanished over the past years, causing great concern among parents. Social media platforms have witnessed growing appeals over missing children, some who disappear never to be seen again.

At least 61 children were reported missing between March and May 2021.

Although 33 were found, with the whereabouts of the rest unknown, Missing Child Kenya says the children could have been abducted by a criminal web.

At least 242 children aged 18 and below were reported missing between January and December 2020, the report by Missing Child Kenya said.

Some of them were found and reunited with their families, while others were taken to government shelters. A few were found dead while others are still missing.

A total of 131 children were found and reunited with their families, 16 have recently been found, 10 were found dead while 18 are still missing,” the report said.

From 2016 to 2020, 780 children were reported missing. Of these, 496 were found and reunited with their loved ones, 73 were taken to government-run children’s homes, 21 were found dead and 190 are still missing.