Serial killer’s pending court case

Self-confessed serial killer Philip Onyancha has a case of attempted murder, rape and assault pending before a Kibera court, it was revealed on Sunday.

Onyancha had attempted to kill the wife of his workmate at G4S last year. Mr Danfus Ongiri, Onyancha’s former colleague at G4S and a neighbour, narrated how the self-confessed serial killer almost killed his wife in February last year.

Mr Ongiri’s wife, Mrs Teresa Kwamboka, was rescued by security guards from a forest in Lenana area where she had been lured. The victim was allegedly walking to hospital from their Ngong Race Course home with her neighbour when Onyancha allegedly hit her with a stone and stabbed her.

The woman’s screams attracted security guards, who were training dogs in the forest, and some women, who were collecting firewood, who came to her rescue. Onyancha escaped and later called the victim’s husband to apologise and reconcile before he was arrested.

He was charged at the Kibera court on April 1, 2009, with assault, attempted rape and attempted murder. He appeared in court again on August 12 last year and on January 14 and May 25, this year. He is scheduled to appear in court again on June 25.

Meanwhile, police are scheduled to charge Onyancha with two murder charges on Tuesday. Four detectives from the Special Crime Prevention Unit spent the better part of the weekend compiling evidence on the two murders.

The two files are those of nine-year-old Antony Njirwa Muiruri, who was abducted and allegedly murdered in April, and Catherine Chelangat, who was murdered on November 22, 2008.

“We are compiling evidence on two cases. We want to request the court to allow the suspect to be held in police custody as we continue investigations into the murders he has confessed committing,” Special Crime Prevention Unit boss Richard Katola said on Sunday.

The detectives have also began collecting more evidence on the Thika and Naivasha prostitute murders. Meanwhile, the family of Onyancha’s last victim, Mercy Chepkirui, want police to help them recover her remains from Lake Naivasha.

The serial killer led detectives to the lake’s shores and showed them where he allegedly dumped the body of the victim. After learning of the arrest of the serial killer, the girl’s father, Mr Edson Lang’at, called the Nation Bureau in Nakuru and made the appeal. “All I want is the remains of my daughter,” Mr Lang’at said.

“My daughter was kidnapped in Naivasha on March 22 and I reported the matter to the authorities, but so far her body has not been recovered,” he said. Chepkurui had gone to Naivasha to look for a job in the numerous flower farms and was accommodated by her cousin.

On the fateful day, she was set to go back to Oleguruone to see her two children. The following day her cousin received a call from some people who told him that they were holding Chepkurui. They demanded to be paid Sh1,500 for fuel, which he sent promptly via M-Pesa, but his cousin was not freed.

Mr Lang’at said the kidnappers also called him and demanded Sh50,000. He says he managed to send Sh20,000, but the gang insisted that they would only release her after he had paid the full amount. “I sent them the balance of Sh30,000, but they instead demanded Sh80,000,” he said.

Mr Lang’at says he paid an additional Sh20,000 on May 17. He was told to go and pick his daughter at Kaplong junction. She wasn’t there.