A Kenyan man who confessed to killing at least 10 children and sucking the blood of some of his victims was lynched by a mob in his village three days after he escaped from jail. According to The Washington Post, Masten Wanjala had been scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday to answer charges of killing two of his victims.
But the suspect was nowhere to be found when authorities were doing a morning roll call at the Jogoo Road police station. The news of Wanjala’s escape reportedly made national headlines and triggered a large manhunt.
The deceased suspect was initially arrested in July on suspicion of killing a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy, Face2Face Africa reported. And following his arrest, the East African nation’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations described Wanjala as a “bloodthirsty vampire.”
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Wanjala was lynched in his hometown on Friday after schoolchildren who made him out alerted villagers, Kenya police spokesman Bruno Isohi Shioso said. Shioso added they couldn’t step in to save Wanjala’s life as his lynching was very swift.
“Police can’t be everywhere,” he said. The country’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations also tweeted: “The law of the jungles as applied by irate villages prevailed.”
Three police officers suspected to have facilitated Wanjala’s escape from jail were arrested, The Star reported. “Things just happen,” Shioso told The Washington Post when he was asked how the deceased suspect successfully escaped from custody. “Once we complete the investigation, we should have a clearer picture of what happened.”
Meanwhile, Wanjala’s father also told NTV Kenya the news of his son’s escape came as a surprise to him. “I have not seen him,” Robert Wanjala continued. “And I’m not interested in seeing him.”
Robert also rendered an apology to the families of the victims his son allegedly killed. He added he was “heartbroken but ready to bury” Wanjala. Tony Opindo Wala, who is the father of one of the children the deceased suspect killed, also said he received the news of Wanjala’s death with mixed feelings. The deceased suspect allegedly called Wala on a number of occasions to ask him for money after he abducted his 13-year-old son. Wala said he had a feeling the killings weren’t orchestrated by just Wanjala.
“He went away [died] with a lot of information,” Wala said. “We just wanted to know how he did it. How did he lure them, what kind of deaths did they experience? … We do not have closure in that regard.”
Following his arrest in July, authorities said they suspected Wanjala carried out the murders for ritual purposes, adding that the accused killer informed them he dazed his victims by forcing them to either drink or inhale a chemical before killing them.
Wanjala, who also told authorities he kept a list of his killings, said he established friendships with the children before luring them to obscure places to commit the crimes. “The man is unapologetic and told detectives he derived a lot of pleasure from killing his victims,” a police officer told The Star at the time.
