Prostitute killers on the prowl

The deceased has so far not been unidentified.

According to Peninah Mwangi, head of the Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme (BHESP), every month, Nairobi men assault more than 300 commercial sex workers monthly and murder more than 100 annually in the line of duty.

“Many more cases certainly go unreported. Nairobi women should be worried because 300 assaults and 100 murders of sex workers by Nairobi men is nothing to joke about,” she says.

Embakasi police station OCS Victor Nyongesa termed the incident as inhumane. He also said they have enough evidence from the used condom and fingerprints on the condom package to nab the suspect. The incident, filed under case OB NO:09/28/4/2014 is being investigated.

Broken neck

This murder in Pipeline follows a similar incident in Mbuthia Pub and Lodging, Huruma estate that occurred four days ago. A sex worker and her client consumed in the act broke their bed only to discover a naked body under them. The murdered prostitute was a mother of four.

It is not the first time, these incidents are occurring. Between April and May 2010, eight prostitutes were murdered in Thika town. The killer, Philip Onyancha, was arrested 250 kilometres away in Kisii town, his eighth victim being 25-year-old Jackline Wambui.

Wambui’s mother, Margaret Nduta says her daughter left home in Gatukuyu (nearly 20 kilometres from Thika town) on a Sunday afternoon. Two days later, she had been murdered. On February 2 Wambui apparently met Onyancha and went to lodge with him at Suitable Lodging in Thika. Her naked body with a broken neck would later be discovered.

Strangled in lodgings

In the same month, at Mbuthia Bar in Huruma, three prostitutes were killed. Anna Mueni’s body was found naked with a bed sheet twisted round her neck. Yet another body was discovered in a culvert near a German clinic between Huruma and Mathare. Osama, a bar tender at Imani bar, Mathare remembers the three deaths.

“They all happened within one month. There were rumours that one man was involved unfortunately, the police never take such deaths seriously, it’s probably because no one follows up,” says Osama.

A few days before Wambui was killed, another sex worker Helen Nyambura was found dead in a Thika lodging. Her neck was broken. During that same month, four prostitutes were found strangled in lodgings in Majengo slums. Officers from Shauri Moyo, who visited the scenes, found used condoms next to the bodies. All the five victims had been strangled.

Two months after the string of murders, Philip Onyancha was arrested. He admitted to have murdered 17 women and told officers he had 83 more to kill. His target is to kill 100 prostitutes.

In June 2010, 22-year-old, John Otieno Okoth confessed to killing seven women from western Kenya. After slitting his victims’ throat, he shaves their hair and presents it to the leader of his cult. Otieno said he was introduced to a religious cult that kills for human hair while at Muhoroni Secondary School.

“There is a season for these killings. For the last two years, there haven’t been any cases of prostitute killers. I think the season is back,” says Linet Akinyi, a commercial sex worker based along Duruma Road.

Photo: Courtesy