Suspected Moi's bridge serial killer confesses to murdering minor

Suspected serial killer Evans Juma Wanjala who is accused of killing five minors in Moi’s Bridge, Uasin Gishu County has confessed to murdering a 10-year old girl.

Appearing before Justice Reuben Nyakundi at the High Court in Eldoret, Wanjala, 36, who was to defend himself, shelved his defence and confessed to killing the minor, Stacy Nabiso in 2021.

He told the judge that he would instead seek a plea bargain deal with the prosecution.

“We are not ready to proceed with the defense since my client is willing to confess to the charges leveled against him. My client has looked at the evidence provided by the prosecution and instead of defending himself, wishes to enter into a plea bargain agreement,” said Francis Kipsamwo, Wanjala’s lawyer.

Justice Nyakundi granted Wanjala’s application to explore a plea bargain agreement and adjourned the matter for two weeks to enable consultations between the defense and the prosecution.

On her part, prosecution counsel Sidi Kirenge told the court that the prosecution was ready to continue with the case, but will look into the application.

The plea bargain agreement seeks to have Wanjala’s sentence reduced if the deal is accepted by the court.

Earlier this year, DCI Homicide Investigator Chief Inspector Romano Oduor who is the Investigating officer in the case told the court that after Wanjala had confessed to the heinous murder of Nabiso, among other minors, Wanjala led a team of experts to various scenes of crime and enacted the chilling account of how he committed the murders.

The Chief Inspector based at the DCI Headquarters in Nairobi said she was called in on July 7, 2021 to help probe a series of murders of the young girls following an outcry from the public.

Nabiso went missing on December 31, 2019, and her body was recovered in Soweto estate on January 1, 2020. The court had ordered for exhumation of her remains before a post-mortem exercise was conducted.

The five minors had been found murdered and their bodies dumped or buried in separate areas within Moi’s Bridge township. “At the time, Wanjala had been arrested and was in police custody.  We recovered clothes that the deceased was wearing on the day she met her death,” she testified in court.

The Court heard that DNA analysis showed that samples collected from the minor’s t-shirt and underwear matched with those taken from Wanjala.

She said Nabiso had been defiled before being killed.

Another DCI officer, Chief Inspector Luta Bri-confgid from the Forensic crime unit also testified and produced photographs taken at the scene where Nabiso’s half naked body was found.

Dr Dennis Nanyingi from the Kitale Referral Hospital testified virtually stating that he carried out a postmortem, which showed that the minor died of strangulation and that she had been defiled. “The cause of death was asphyxia secondary to strangulation. The minor had also been defiled before being killed and her body bore bruises. However, a high vaginal swab was not taken because the body had been washed and samples would not be collected,” said Dr Nanyingi.

During the onset of the investigations, the DCI in a statement at that time had said the minors were lured by the suspect from different locations within Moi’s Bridge, before being taken to secluded areas where the suspected pedophile defiled and strangled them. “The suspect gave a blow-by-blow account of how he took away the lives of Linda Cherono, 13, Mary Elusa, 14, Grace Njeri, 12, Stacy Nabiso, 10 and Lucy Wanjiru, 15, after defiling them,” DCI explained at the time the suspect was arrested.