Suspected Eldoret serial killer to take plea tomorrow

Suspected serial killer Evans Juma Wanjala, who is linked to the murder of five girls at Moi’s Bridge in Uasin Gishu, was presented before the High Court in Eldoret but was not charged.

Wanjala will instead appear before a judge in Kapenguria on Wednesday to face three initial counts of murder.

He was presented before deputy registrar Rosemary Onkoba who directed that the suspect be taken before the duty judge to take a plea.

He is charged that between June 11 and 15 this year at Moi's Bridge within Soy subcounty he murdered Linda Cherono.

Wanjala also faces another count that on the night of December 31, 2019 and  January 1, 2020 in Soweto estate within Moi’s Bridge he murdered Stacy Achieng Nabiso.

The third count states that between December 15 and 16, 2020 in Yuiyabei village Moi’s Bridge within Uasin Gishu he murdered Mary Elusa.

Onkoba appointed three lawyers Moses Keter, Michael Wabomba and Millicent Wesonga who will represent the suspect on pro bono basis during the hearing of the plea taking.

The court was also informed that a mental examination had been done on the suspect who was found fit to stand trial.

“I direct that he be reminded at the Eldoret police station and be produced before the duty judge for plea taking,” Onkoba said.

Homicide detectives have completed investigations into the three files and the DPP has approved charges as investigations in other killings linked to the suspect continue.

The homicide detectives had on Saturday exhumed the body of a girl whose killing is among more than five others linked to Wanjala.

The officers exhumed the body of Grace Njeri who was last year buried at her parent’s home in Karara Nyakinyua farm near Moi’s Bridge.

Njeri’s dismembered body parts were found a month after she went missing. Samples for DNA testing were taken from the remains after which the body was reburied.

Investigating officer Peter Kamau had told a court in Eldoret that they needed to exhume the body because the victim had been buried without autopsy and collection of samples.

Senior resident magistrate Naomi Wairimu gave the exhumation orders.

“The autopsy and collection of the samples for DNA testing will be necessary as part of the investigations into the killings,” Kamau said as he sought extra time to hold the suspect before he is presented to court to face several charges.

Relatives and residents watched from a distance as police sealed off the area before exhuming the remains.

“We have also extracted a confession from him and recoded statements from several witnesses,” Kamau said.

He told the court that they had also visited the scenes where the murders occurred and the suspect re-enacted how he carried out the crimes.

Following his arrest two month ago, a statement from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said Wanjala brutally murdered five girls after assaulting and defiling them.

The DCI statement said the minors, all aged between the age of 10 and 15, were lured by the suspect from different locations within Moi’s Bridge, before being taken to secluded areas where he defiled and strangled them.

The DCI added that the suspect gave account of how he killed the five girls.

"In a chilling confession by the killer who took detectives on a re-enactment of how he executed his 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," DCI explained in the statement.

The pedophile led detectives to the scene of every murder he had committed, where remains of the murdered minors had earlier been recovered.

He was dressed in a PPE along with several officers so as to conceal him from angry mobs who bayed for his blood.

“It’s shocking that a human being can do this to children. We are however pleased that he has been arrested to face the law,” said a resident of Moi’s Bridge Lenah Kemboi.

Police said in one of the killings, 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 body was found half dressed in a bush, with signs of strangulation, defilement and physical injuries visible.

DCI explained that 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 animals.

In two other 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 did it.

Further forensic analysis at the DCI forensic lab, positively connected the suspect to the murder of the minors.

He  had on diverse dates in 2018, defiled two minors in Kibwezi and upon being arraigned in court was released on bond.

After his release he went into hiding prompting a warrants of arrest to be issued against him by the Makindu law courts.

This Moi’s Bridge murder puzzle was cracked after homicide sleuths based at DCI headquarters, traveled to Eldoret West and took over the various case files regarding the defilement and killings of the girls.

-Edited by SKanyara