NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 19- Global children’s agency UNICEF has condemned the kidnapping and murder of children in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya and called for those responsible to be held to account, while additional measures to protect children are adopted.
This follows a confession by Masten Wanjala, that he kidnapped and killed at least 12 children in four years in Nairobi, Machakos and Bungoma Counties.
So far three bodies have been recovered but others are yet to be recovered.
Masten Milimo Wanjala, 25, the man described by detectives as a bloodthirsty vampire is believed to be responsible for at least 12 cold-blood murders of innocent children, police said.
UNICEF Representative to Kenya Maniza Zaman said there is need to redouble efforts to ensure that children are protected wherever they are – at home, in schools and in public spaces.
“We need psychosocial support for child victims and their families, and we need to ensure that the public is vigilant and knows how to recognize and report any kind of violence against children,” Zaman said.
“UNICEF condemns in the strongest possible terms the kidnapping and killing of children – this is one of the worst crimes imaginable and there can be no excuses for it.”
In response to persistently high rates of violence against children in Kenya, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, with support from UNICEF, last year launched a five-year National Prevention and Response Plan on Violence against Children.
This includes a public information campaign ‘Spot It, Stop It’ which aims to raise public awareness of violence against children and how to prevent and report it.
Children and adults are encouraged to speak up about violence, seek support from a trusted adult, children officer or the Child Helpline on 116 (toll free), and report cases to the police.
“It is important to empower communities to look out for the safety and protection of children,” Zaman added.
“We need a ‘whole of society’ approach, involving the Government, communities, parents and caregivers, teachers, and children themselves. No child should ever go through the traumatic experience of being a victim of violence and abuse.”
The 2019 Violence Against Children Survey found that among those who participated in the survey, 46 percent of 18 to 24-year-old young women had faced at least one type of violence –physical, emotional or sexual – during their childhood, as well as 56 percent of young men in the same age group.
The prime suspect Wanjala and his cousin have been arrested over the said killings.
In Uasin Gishu, the identity of a suspected serial killer who murdered five young girls after assaulting and defiling them has been revealed.
Police say Evans Juma Wanjala who procured the heinous murders between December 31, 2019 and June 15, 2021, first defiled his victims before strangling them to death.
The minors all aged between the age of 10 and 15 were lured by the suspect from different locations within Moi’s Bridge in Uasin-Gishu County, before being taken to secluded areas where he defiled and strangled them.
In a chilling confession by the killer who took detectives on a re-enactment of how he executed his ghastly missions, he gave a blow-by-blow account of how he took away the lives of Linda Cherono, 13, Mary Elusa, 14, Grace Njeri, 12, Stacy Nabiso, 10 and Lucy Wanjiru, 15, after defiling them.
The pedophile led detectives to the scene of every murder that he had committed, where charred remains of the murdered minors had earlier been recovered.
Linda Cherono’s decomposing body was found on June 15, 2021, near Baharini Dam, after she went missing a few days earlier.
In an incident that sparked protests along the busy Eldoret – Kitale highway, Cherono’s decomposing remains were found half dressed in a bush, with signs of strangulation, defilement and physical injuries visible on her body.
The modus operandi of the pedophile was replicated in all the other four murders where the victims were first defiled before being strangled to death, and left in the bushes to be devoured by wild beasts.
In two such instances, the lifeless bodies of the victims were stashed in gunny-bags covered with vegetables and left to rot away in the bushes.
During the re-enactment, homicide detectives augmented by their Scenes of Crime, and Photographic and Acoustics counterparts, documented forensically each of the five murder scenes, as the executioner demonstrated how he abducted, defiled, murdered and dumped the bodies of the minors.
Post-mortem examination of all the minors revealed they were defiled before being killed.
Further forensic analysis at the DCI forensic lab connected the suspect to the murder of the minors.
Juma is a habitual offender with pending warrants of arrest against him as he had on diverse dates in 2018, defiled two minors in Kibwezi and upon being arraigned was released on bond and went into hiding prompting a warrant of arrest to be issued against him by the Makindu Law Courts.
Police were allowed by the court to hold him for 21 days.
This murder puzzle was cracked after homicide detectives based at DCI headquarters, travelled to Eldoret West and took over the various case files, regarding the wanton defilement and killings of the girls.
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