Another man confesses to killing seven for hair

By ROBERT NYASATO

A second self-confessed serial killer has admitted to killing up to seven people.

John Okoth Otieno yesterday said he was introduced to a religious cult that kills for human hair while at Muhoroni Secondary School.

His latest victim was killed in Keroka Town at the weekend.

At one time, the 22-year-old attempted to kill his girlfriend of one year. The lucky woman escaped with injuries and lived to narrate her ordeal to the police yesterday after she heard of Otieno’s arrest.

He tried to kill her in Keumbu Township on the Kisii-Sotik highway, but she slipped out of his hands.

Nyamira OCPD Shadrack Maithya yesterday said detectives from Bondo, Nyando and Kericho, where Otieno said he killed his targets, had joined in the investigation to piece together evidence to charge him in court.

"The suspect told us he shaves his victims’ hair after killing them. We caught him with human hair, which he confessed belonged to his latest victim," Maithya said.

He said they were not interested in ransom or blood from the victims but human hair, which they produce to their seniors to assess their progress.

In the cult, he disclosed, they use a knife to slit open their victim’s throat before shaving them.

Shocked police

The suspect, who shocked police with the ease in which he made the confessions, said members of the cult meet every last Friday of the month in Kisumu, Kericho or Nairobi, where they compare notes on how many each had killed.

Otieno, who hails from Uyoma in Rarieda District, was found with a passport issued to him last year and is due for expiry in 2019.

He voluntarily disclosed that he had killed three people in Bondo, two in Nyando, one in Kapsoit and another in Keroka.

His revelations come barely a week after another self-confessed serial killer Philip Onyancha was arraigned in court.

Otieno was arrested after a lady he had spent a night with in a lodging in Keroka town was found dead.

The slain woman was found soaked in blood, with her throat slit. A caretaker at Obomo Bar reported the find police.

Otieno was nabbed in Sotik District in Kaplong, where he was apprehended and upon interrogation, owned up to the bizarre killings.

Detectives also hinted that the suspect had disclosed the names of his three accomplices in the crimes and were making efforts to trace them.