Kenyan student held for killing, eating guest

College student Alexander Kinyua (left) arrested for allegedly killing his roommate Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie (right) and eating his heart and brain.
By Chris Wamalwa in USA

A Kenyan has been arrested by US Police in shocking criminal revelation for allegedly killing and eating the flesh of an African house mate. His victim has been identified as 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, a Ghanaian or Nigerian national.

Investigators say 21-year-old college student Alexander Kinyua killed his roommate and then ate his heart and parts of his brain. He cut off his victim's head and hands and stored them in his family's townhouse on Terrapin Terrace in Joppatowne.

Emerging details seem to point to the possibility that the Kenyan born naturalized US student who confessed to having engaged in a horrifying incident of human flesh-eating earlier in the week suffers from serious mental and psychological illness.

Multiple sources within the Kenyan community in Maryland who are familiar with the Kinyua family indicated to The Standard Digital that Kinyua, a student in Maryland who allegedly admitted to the police to devouring his roommate's brain and heart had earlier on depicted signs of depression. 

"It has been clear to the family members and friends that this boy was severely depressed and he was just a walking time bomb. But because nobody in the Kenyan community was courageous enough to even admit that the boy is a Mathare candidate, the situation was left to come to this. It is very sad". Said a family friend who requested that we do not use his name.

Kinyua, a student at Morgan State University, admitted to murdering his roommate Agyei-Kodie, who was reported missing last Friday. It's reported in the US press that Kinyua's father called police late Tuesday night when Kinyua's brother reportedly found human remains - a head and two hands - in a metal tin in the basement.

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The brother and father left the room for a short time, but when they came back, the body parts had been moved and Kinyua was washing out the tin, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Officers searched the house and arrested Kinyua. 

The man allegedly confessed a shocking revelation: not only had he killed Agyei-Kodie by cutting him up with a knife and then dismembered him, he ingested parts of the victim's brain and all of his heart. He then allegedly dropped most of the remains in a Dumpster behind a church in Joppatowne.

It's yet unclear what Kinyua's motive may have been, but he was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday. In another incident on May 20, he was charged with first-degree assault when he allegedly beat a fellow student randomly with a baseball bat and then fled into the woods.

Kinyua is  a naturalized citizen of the United States who moved to America from Nairobi, Kenya nine years ago. He made an initial appearance in court on Thursday and is being held without bail. He is charged with 1st degree murder, 1st degree assault and 2nd degree assault.

The county chief medical examiner has yet to officially identify the body parts as those of Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie.

Even though the Kinyua story has been a shock to the people in the US and has been covered by almost every major media outlet, the Kenyan community in Maryland especially those who have followed his past criminal record are not very surprised. The tell tale signs have always been there.  

Before May, Kinyua had no prior criminal record. In January, he was dismissed from the ROTC program after 2 1/2 years of participation, said Lt. Col. James Lewis, a professor of military service who oversees the program. Officials said it followed a disciplinary incident.

Then on May 20, Kinyua was charged with first-degree assault and reckless endangerment. In that case, according to police, Kinyua attacked another Morgan student in a doorway of the on-campus Thurgood Marshall apartment complex with a baseball bat, then fled into a nearby wooded area.

The victim, listed as Joshua Ceasar, suffered fractures to his skull, arm and shoulder, as well as blindness to his left eye. The first responding officer saw Ceasar stumbling toward her with blood coming from his forehead, and the officer noted a large amount of blood in the doorway.

Fabien, who said she knew Kinyua, said she saw him in the moments before the attack. She said he was sitting in a chair, clutching the bat.

"He kept saying, 'Somebody has to protect the kids. I gotta protect the kids,'" she said.

Kinyua was ordered held on $220,000 bond in that case, and university officials said the school was in the process of expelling him. According to court records, two Baltimore residents (Kenyans) posted property to secure bond for his release on May 23.

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