Kenya: Accused serial killer dubbed as ‘vampire’ and suspected of butchering 42 women escapes from police custody

A Kenyan man arrested on suspicion of having killed and dismembered 42 women has escaped from his jail cell in Nairobi, police said on Tuesday.

A dozen other detainees also got free along with the 33-year-old Collins Jumaisi Khalusha

"They escaped last night, 13 in total, including the key suspect in the dump murder case," Kenya police spokesperson Resila Onyango told news agency AFP.

The escape comes as Kenyan police come under increasing scrutiny over the murders.

Suspect escapes after alleged confession

Khalusha was arrested in July and appeared before a court in Nairobi on Friday where the judge ordered his detention be extended for another 30 days.

The arrest came after the discovery of the bodies of 10 butchered women were found in plastic bags at a dumpsite at an abandoned quarry in a Nairobi slum.

"We are dealing with a vampire, a psychopath," the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, said after the arrest.

Khalusha, was charged with the murders of 42 women over the course of two years, including his wife who was allegedly the first victim.

Police said Khalusha had confessed to the murders, but his lawyer said the confession was the result of torture. The prosecution has denied claims of mistreatment.

Kenya's police under scrutiny

Kenyan police have already come under criticism following the discovery of the victim's bodies, which were found just 100 meters (328 feet) from a police station.

The state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said it was carrying out its own investigation due to "a need to rule out any possibility of extrajudicial killings."

Police have regularly been accused of functioning as hit squads that carry out extrajudicial killings.

Kenya's police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority, also said it was looking into the case to determine whether there had been a "failure to act to prevent" the killings.