Kenyan police said Monday they had arrested a "serial killer" after nine mutilated bodies were discovered at a rubbish dump in the capital Nairobi in recent days.
"We have arrested a prime suspect this morning. We are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopath who has no respect for human life," CID chief Mohammed Amin told reporters, revealing that "we have a second suspect who was arrested with one of the victims' phones in his possession."
He said, "The ages of the victims ranged between 18 and 30 years old, and they were all slaughtered in the same way."
The 33-year-old suspect was arrested at about 3 a.m. local time near a bar in a joint operation by the Criminal Investigation Directorate and the National Police Service, acting Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanga said.
He said that nine bodies have been recovered so far, and autopsies will be conducted on the victims' bodies.
Since July 12, mutilated and dismembered bodies in plastic bags have been pulled from piles of rubbish at an abandoned crusher in the poor Mokoro area south of the capital, horrifying the country.
Police said on Sunday that the eight bodies were women, pledging to conduct a "transparent" investigation.
This came as tensions escalated at the crime scene in the Mukuru slum in the south of the Kenyan capital, where police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of angry residents.
Police officials said they were looking for possible links to cults, serial killers or traditional medicine practitioners in their investigation into the crime, which has horrified and angered Kenyans.
This has put the Kenyan police under renewed scrutiny and increased pressure on President William Ruto, who is struggling to contain the crisis of the killing of dozens of demonstrators in anti-government protests.
Kenya's Independent Police Oversight Authority said on Saturday it had opened an investigation into suspected police involvement.
The body also said it was looking into allegations that protesters who went missing after last month's protests had been abducted. But it did not link the missing to the bodies found.
In Kenya, police face frequent allegations of extrajudicial killings, but are rarely convicted.