By WINSTONE CHISEREMI
Evans Wanjala, the self-confessed serial killer behind the murder of the five children in Moi’s Bridge between 2019 and 2021 in Uasin Gishu County will be held in police custody for 7 more days, as a committee formed by the Office of the Public Prosecution (ODPP) meets to discuss which charges to prefer against him.
This was after the Investigative officer Peter Kamau, while appearing before Principal Magistrate Naomi Wairimu during the mention of the case told the court that the ODPP would meet on Thursday next week to compile a report and prefer charges against the murder suspect
Wanjala will then be arraigned in court on August 23 to face the preferred charges against him by the ODPP.
The suspect complained to the court that he has been in police custody since his arrest in June and does not know how the case against him is proceeding.
The detectives from the criminal investigations department headquarters in Nairobi had on July 22 requested the court to grant them 21 more days to continue holding Wanjala in order to complete their investigations before he is arraigned in court for plea taking in connection with the alleged murder case.
Recorded confessions
Kamau had told the court in July that the 14 days which the court had granted them earlier for investigations were not enough to help them come up with thorough investigations since the case involved separate murders of five minors.
Kamau had also told the court that they had traced witnesses, recorded confessions from the main suspect and had done a reenactment of the various scenes of crime but were yet to complete investigations.
“We have also done a mental assessment on the main suspect and have reviewed initial recorded files where the main suspect is facing three other charges of sexual offences in various courts and has pending warrants of arrest,” stated the Investigating officer.
Kamau informed the court that Wanjala was facing a sexual offence case filed in 2017 at Kajiado law courts and two other cases filed in 2018 at Makindu law court.
Another suspect, Daniel Kiprugut Maru was, however, acquitted by the court after the investigating team failed to find evidence incriminating him.
Body recovered along the Railway line
Wanjala, confessed to defiling and strangling to death five children between ages 10 and 15.
The suspect was captured on CCTV footage leading his latest victim, 13 year-old Linda Cherono occasioning his arrest by police detectives.
Cherono went missing on June 11 and her body was found on June 15 near Baharini dam.
Another victim Mary Eluza- 14, went missing on December 15 2020, and her body was discovered the next day stacked in a sack in a napier grass plantation just next to Kapkatet dam.
Stayce Achieng, 10 also went missing on December 31, 2019, and her body recovered along the Railway line next to River Nzoia on January 1, 2020.
Lucy Wanjiru, 15, went missing in January 2020 and her body was found in a thicket in Tuiyabei, next to a cattle dip.
Grace Njeri,12, was reported to have disappeared on May 21, 2020 and her mutilated, decomposed body parts were found on June 18, 2020 at Soronoi farm.
The case is set for mention on August 23.