By VINCENT ACHUKA

More by this Author

Self-confessed serial child killer Masten Wanjala, 20, has escaped from police custody in Nairobi.

Wanjala, who recently confessed to killing 10 children in Bungoma, western Kenya, reportedly escaped from police cells in Nairobi under unclear circumstances.

He was to be presented in court on Wednesday to take a plea.

Wanjala was arrested in July this year in connection with two missing children aged 13 and 12. Following his arrest, he led police to where he had dumped the bodies of the minors - Charles Opindo Bala and Junior Mutuku Musyoki - in Spring Valley estate, Westlands and near Kabete Approved School in Nairobi.

Afterwards, Wanjala confessed to a secret murderous campaign spanning six years and in more than four counties where he executed all his victims single-handedly, some with his bare hands.

He admitted to kidnapping and slaughtering at least 13 children in Nairobi and its environs as the city reeled under a spiralling wave of abductions.

In Bungoma County, he led detectives to several scenes where he claimed to have buried some of his victims. In one village in Kimilili Constituency, one of the victims, nine-year-old Emmanuel Wafula, was defiled and killed before his body was dumped in a pit latrine in the area in February 2019.

At the time, another man, Haron Ajega, 73, was arrested over the suspected killing of the minor. He died last year from an illness even as the cloud of suspicion over his alleged involvement hang over his head. 

For every target he eliminated in Bungoma, Machakos, Nairobi and Kajiado, Wanjala claimed he marked the calendar and kept a record of his dark victories by scribbling names on dates.

According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), he allegedly covered his tracks by dumping the bodies of his victims in pit latrines, sewage pools and thickets.

Additional reporting by Mary Wambui and Brian Ojamaa