A Kenyan man identified as, Masten Milimo Wanjala, who recently escaped from police custody after been accused of killing children has been lynched by villagers.
The serial killer was apprehended on July 14 following the disappearance of two kids, he, however, confessed during interrogation to killing not less than ten children over five years.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Wanjala confessed to killing the children “sometimes through sucking blood from their veins before executing them.”
Wanjala was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday for killing children when officers noticed during the morning roll call that he had disappeared.
The criminal on Friday was caught after he was identified by children at his rural home in Bungoma, more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the police station he had escaped from.
The area administrator, Bonface Ndiema, while speaking on the development said, “He comes from this area and so the children saw him and knew it was him and that is when information spread around and locals started pursuing him.”
“In the end, he ran into a neighbour’s house but he was flushed out and lynched.”
The police said Wanjala before his death would drug and drain his victim’s blood and some of them strangled.
According to police, the suspect’s first victim was a 12-year-old girl he abducted five years ago in Machakos county east of Nairobi.
The murder of his next victim in western Kenya sparked protests, with locals torching the house of the person they suspected killed the boy.
“Unbeknownst to some of the worried families, their children were long executed by the beast and their remains dumped in thickets. Others were submerged in sewer lines in the city and left to rot away,” the DCI said in July.
The bodies of several children feared to have died at Wanjala’s hands have yet to be found.
Three officers who were on duty at the Nairobi police station where he was held were arrested this week on allegations that they either aided or “neglected to prevent” his escape.
A court-ordered their release on bail on Friday as a probe into the escape gets underway.
The spokesman of the police, Bruno Shiosho while speaking on the development said they have launched a forensic investigation into the identity of the lynched man.
“The locals have said it is him. For now, we can confirm that a man locals say is Masten Wanjala who was on the run has been lynched in Bungoma,” he said.
