Kenyan villagers on Friday lynched a serial child killer, described as a “bloodthirsty vampire,” days after he escaped from police custody, according to Kenyan authorities.
Masten Milimo Wanjala, aged just 20, was arrested on July 14 for the disappearance of two children, but in a chilling confession, he admitted to killing at least 10 other people over a five-year period, “sometimes sucking blood from their veins before executing them,” the Kenyan Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) said at the time.
The young man was due to appear in a Nairobi court on Wednesday for the murders of two children, aged 12 and 13, but had disappeared from the police station at the morning call. Three police officers were arrested and brought before a judge on Thursday to answer for the accused escape.
But a crowd caught up with him on Friday near his home, where he was identified by schoolchildren in Bungoma, more than 400 km from the police station from which he had escaped.
Police spokesman Bruno Shiosho said they have launched a forensic investigation into the identity of the lynched man. In July, police described Wanjala’s arrest as a major breakthrough in an investigation into a series of disturbing child disappearances in the East African country.
The victims were drugged and bled to death. Some were strangled, police said. Wanjala’s first victim was a 12-year-old girl abducted five years ago in Machakos County, east of Nairobi.