Police in Kapsabet on Tuesday arrested a 17-year-old suspected to have been defiling children of both gender and later killing them.
The teenager is alleged to have used money to lure his victims aged between 4 and 16 years to a tea estate where he sodomised and raped before killing them.
The arrest came after the bodies of a 12-year-old girl and a boy aged 11 previously reported missing were discovered by residents.
Two villagers claimed that the missing boy was seen with the suspect on the day he disappeared and the suspect was allegedly seen leading the boy to a nearby forest.
“One witness asked him where he was going with the boy and the child was quick to respond that the suspect had promised to pay him Sh100 if he helped him fetch firewood in a forest surrounding the tea plantation but the child never returned home,” area chief Paul Lagat said.
Mr Lagat told news reporters that the village had lost six children in the past three years adding that four other bodies had previously been recovered in the Kapsigak tea plantation.
“The 12-year-old girl was reported missing on June 27 this year. A dog brought home a leg and arm on July 6, which were later identified by the missing child’s distraught parents as their child’s body parts. The villagers searched and recovered her naked body. We suspect she had been defiled before being killed. We are waiting for results from the postmortem that is currently underway,” he added.
The parents of the 11-year-old boy reported their son missing after the girl’s body was discovered.
His body was found days later in the same tea plantation.
The chief added that another girl aged 16 had also been reported missing and is yet to be found.
Confirming the development, Kapsabet Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) Joachim Mecha said investigations were underway and acknowledged that bodies of the two children were undergoing a postmortem at the County Referral Hospital.