Kenyan serial killer: I would kill any woman who leaves me

Suspected serial killer Mustafa Idd Lokono in an Eldoret court on October 2, 2019. NMG PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Nancy’s father, Mr William Edome, said they were not told why he was released on bond, and that he feared that his daughter would not get the justice she deserves.
  • On Friday, Moi’s Bridge leaders urged the court to stop releasing people accused of murder on bond without considering their backgrounds.

Mustafa Idd, the man who last week walked into a police station in Moi’s Bridge, Uasin Gishu County, and told officers that he had just killed his girlfriend and dismembered her, had for months fantasised about killing women and cutting their bodies into pieces, interviews with his friends and family members show.

The Saturday Nation spent this week piecing together the story of one of the most macabre killings in recent Kenyan history.

SUITCASE

Our team learnt that Idd, who is in custody after a court in Eldoret allowed police to detain him for 20 days to allow for further investigations and a mental assessment, had for the past five months been talking about how he would kill and dismember any woman who dared leave him for another man.

He told his close friends that he would then move around Moi’s Bridge with the body parts packed in a suitcase.

And then it happened, with such barbarity that it appeared to be straight from a horror movie.

Idd, who is facing another murder charge and is out on a KSh1 million bond, killed his 21-year-old girlfriend Emma Wanyotta and cut up her body into pieces, according to his confession to police.

Ms Sheila Wanyotta, a sister of the murdered student, told the Saturday Nation that Idd had earlier this year coolly told her that no woman could get the better of him, and that he would go to any length, including killing, to prove his point.

“He kept saying that women are weak people,” remembered Sheila of the day she visited Idd, a village carpenter, at his family home earlier this year.

DISMEMBERED
“He said it was so easy to strangle women, and that were the woman he is accused of killing to ever resurrect he would get a panga and cut her into pieces to ensure she is ‘properly dead”.

Sheila did not report the confession and threat to anyone, including the police, because she believed that Idd was just bluffing, as he always did about so many other things. Now she wishes she had.

Idd is an interesting study on crime. Even as he casually informed Sheila that he did not care much about women, he knew that he faced murder charges for the killing of his girlfriend Nancy Naromboi Edome two years ago.

His small village in Moi’s Bridge is still reeling from the shock of the crime he confessed to last week.

Emma’s dismembered body was found on a farm near their house, with her legs and hands missing and genitals smashed.

The other body parts were later found on the farm. Emma, Sheila told us, had terminated a short-term relationship with Idd.

CHILLING
“I did not know he could ever do this to my sister,” Sheila said. “I now believe that he would have preferred to take her dismembered limbs and hands, put them in a suitcase and walk around Moi’s Bridge as he had told me. It hurts to think that this has happened to my beautiful sister.”

Idd, she said, had also told her that he was mad over his temporary imprisonment in 2017 as his bond hearing progressed in court.

“He said that while in prison he was planning with some of his colleagues in remand to escape, buy a gun and kill those accusing him of killing his girlfriend,” she said. Sheila’s brother, Job Manyasi, also remembered the chilling stories the man told him.

“He said he was so mad with his former girlfriend that he would not hesitate to kill her if he were to find her alive. I always asked him why he was so angry with her but he never told me,” Mr Manyasi said on Friday.

ANGRY
He said he became worried that Idd could be a threat to the community and asked his family to get him a counsellor.

“At some point I decided to counsel him because I have some counselling experience,” Mr Manyasi said. “I often asked him not to be angry about what had happened before. But even with that I felt that he needed further counselling.”

“We want justice for my sister. We will not relent until she gets justice. How many women will he kill before action is taken? We are crying for the loss of our beautiful sister whose life has been cut short.”

Documents at the Kitale Law Courts indicate that Idd faces murder charges for the death of Nancy on July 25, 2017 in Kapkoi village, Kiminini sub-county.

JUSTICE

He denied the charges and was released on March 19 on a Sh1 million bond. He deposited the title deed of a piece of land to secure his release.

Nancy’s father, Mr William Edome, said they were not told why he was released on bond, and that he feared that his daughter would not get the justice she deserves.

On Friday, Moi’s Bridge leaders urged the court to stop releasing people accused of murder on bond without considering their backgrounds.

“We are worried that the court might release him again,” said Mr Ken Kipruto, a local leader. “We will not accept that to happen. We cannot afford to lose more innocent souls.”

Nominated MP Belinda Tirop said investigators and prosecutors should help find justice for the two families.