Kenyan serial killers who have made headlines
By Nyaboga KiageIn the movie Wolf Creek, seven people are killed by a serial killer identified as Mr Ivan Milat who was arrested and sentenced to seven separate life imprisonment after being found guilty. This gives the victims’ family a happy ending with Mr Ivan behind bars.
Just like in the movie, Kenyan nurse living in the US, Mr Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir, 48, was jailed for life after he was found guilty in April for one of the 22 murders that he now faces. This came without parole which means that the temporary or permanent release of a prisoner before the expiry of a sentence, on the promise of good behavior.
Mr Chemirmir hunted and killed elderly women then stole their jewelry which he would later sell to make his living, Dallas County prosecutors told jurors Friday, the last day of Chemirmir’s capital murder trial. The jury agreed, taking less than 30 minutes to find Chemirmir guilty.
In March 2018, Hollyn Williams and Lindsey Roan were busy cleaning their mother’s Ms Martha Williams house and were shocked to find her dead.
She was lying on the floor of her apartment which is located in Plano, within Texas, north of Dallas in March 2018.
The duo alerted the police who later said that the woman had died of a natural cause after consulting medical experts.
After the decision was made that the woman dies naturally the two sisters started investigating what had really transpired and why their mother had died, only to realise that everything was not okay.
The next day, in one building over from their mother’s apartment, another woman was found dead and a third survived an attack from a man she said tried to smother her with a pillow.
Also read: Exclusive – Police were involved in the killing of Pakistani journalist, Ipoa says
Police arrested Chemirmir, a Kenyan immigrant to the United States, after tracking him to a Dallas apartment complex the day after. As he was handcuffed, police found cash and more jewelry from yet another victim, and quickly realized there could be even more cases.
A serial killer had been at work among the elderly, preying on some of the most vulnerable people in America.
He is now in jail.
However, Chemirmir is just one of several serial killers of the recent past.
In October 2021, a suspected serial killer, Masten Wanjala, who had been accused of murdering 12 children escaped from Jogoo Road Police Station before he died.
It remains unclear how he managed to escape from police custody.
His disappearance was only detected after he failed to turn up in court where he was expected to appear in connection to the murders.
Mr Wanjala is believed to have been a bloodthirsty vampire who confessed to detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that he had single-handedly ended the lives of 12 children.
Also read: Kenyan man whose car was mistaken for slain Pakistan journalist speaks
Before him, 12 years ago, another serial killer by the name Mr Philip Onyancha shocked the nation with a chilling confession of how he had killed 19 people, mainly women.
He also claimed he had been recruited into a cult when he was a student adding that a teacher directed him to kill 100 people and drink their blood if he wanted to become successful in life.
Onyancha, who is now serving time at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Kiambu County, then showed detectives several sites in Nairobi, Central Kenya and the Rift Valley where he said he had killed his victims. The bodies of some of the victims were retrieved.
The jailbird, who faces several murder charges, has only been acquitted in one case. In that case, Justice Jessie Lessit on July 8, 2021 said prosecutors had failed to prove that Onyancha killed Jacqueline Misoi on May 30, 2008 at the Mount Kenya building on Kombo Munyiri Road in Nairobi.
Yet another serial killer who made headlines was Mr Evans Michori Kebwaro, was linked to a spate of killings of women in Mawanga, Nakuru. His arrest evoked memories of serial killers who previously caused fear in the county.
Before Mr Kebwaro, a suspected serial killer, and his five accomplices had been arrested in Nakuru County, where residents, especially women, had altered their daily lives trying desperately to stay safe.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) eventually traced the suspect to Keroka, Kisii County, where they apprehended him.
Upon interrogation, he named Julius Otieno, Josphat Simiyu, Dennis Mmbolo, Isaac Kinyanjui and Makhoha Wanjala as members of his gang.
Also read: What Pakistan is demanding from Kenya over Arshad Sharif’s murder