Philip Onyancha is a Kenyan former security guard who told police in June 2010 that he had killed 19 people over about three years and meant to reach 100. He has not been convicted of any killing. The High Court in Nairobi charged him with murder in three cases. It declared a mistrial in 2018, struck out his confession statement in 2019 and, on July 8, 2021, acquitted him of the murder of Jacqueline Chepngetich Misoi. In November 2021 two further murder cases were still pending, and he was being held at Kamiti Maximum Prison.
What Onyancha said, what police attributed to him and what the courts decided are three different things. His account of 17 or 19 killings is a claim. The court record contains one verdict, an acquittal.
Onyancha was a security guard. Capital FM reported in June 2010 that he had worked for G4S until March 25, 2010. G4S told the station he had failed its enhanced integrity testing and was dismissed. The Associated Press gave his age as 32 in June 2010. In later court proceedings his lawyers described him as a married man with two children.
The date of his arrest is not on record. Capital FM wrote on June 9, 2010 that he had been detained "last week," and an Associated Press report carried by the Chicago Defender said he was first held on kidnapping allegations concerning a nine-year-old boy and that the confessions followed. Richard Katola, then head of the Special Crimes Prevention Unit, led the inquiry.
Over several days in early June 2010, Onyancha gave detectives accounts of killings in and around Nairobi, in Naivasha, in Thika and elsewhere. Capital FM quoted Katola on June 9 as saying Onyancha had admitted to at least 19 killings in the previous three years. A later Capital FM report broke the 19 down as nine in Nairobi, four in Thika, four in Naivasha and one each in Nyeri and Nakuru. The Daily Nation gave a lower figure, 17, and several later reports used 17. Some reports in 2018 spoke of 18 women and one child.
Katola told reporters that the information matched police records and what residents said, and that the account had helped explain deaths that had been unsolved. Police did not complete every file, because some of the people Onyancha described were not identified. None of these killings other than the three that reached court was ever charged.
Onyancha said the people he named were strangers to him. He said he had been recruited into a cult while at secondary school in Nyeri, and that it had promised him wealth if he killed 100 people. Police questioned a woman he named; no charge against her is on record. These statements are his claims and were never tested by a verdict.
A two-hour video of his confession, recorded by a police officer, was later played in the High Court before Justice Nicholas Ombija and admitted as an exhibit, over defense objections that it had not been made under the standard procedure. The Daily Nation reported that in it he said he had set out to kill 100 people and had been arrested after 17.
On Tuesday, June 15, 2010, Onyancha and two co-accused appeared before Justice Jessie Lessit in the High Court. They were charged with the murder of Anthony Njirwa Muiruri, a boy aged nine, in the Dagoretti area of Nairobi, in April 2010. The three had no lawyer and entered no plea. They were held at Kilimani police station, with the next date set for June 29. The two co-accused had been arrested the previous Saturday after Onyancha named them in his confessions; police said they were still looking for a third man.
On June 18 police filed two further murder charges. The first named Catherine Chelangat, 32, said to have died on November 22, 2008 in Karen. The second named Jacqueline Chepngetich Misoi, said to have died on May 30, 2008 in Nairobi. Justice Lessit ordered the Deputy High Court Registrar to arrange a lawyer for him. Police told Capital FM that more charges might follow as other files were completed, but the later reports speak of three murder cases only.
Onyancha was also facing a separate charge in a Kibera court that dated from April 2009, with hearings through 2010. The Daily Nation reported this in 2010.
The first medical examination, made around the time of his arrest, found him fit to stand trial. Capital FM reported in June 2010 that this test was done in Nakuru. Kenyans.co.ke wrote that a government psychiatrist reported on July 19, 2010 that he was fit to plead and instruct a lawyer, and that he pleaded not guilty that day.
His first lawyer, Peter Simani, told the court in 2010 that he had a mental problem and needed to be re-examined. A panel of three doctors found a mental problem but said its report was not conclusive. A report by Dr. Fredrick Owiti, a consultant psychiatrist, based on examinations on July 1 and July 8, 2011, diagnosed residual schizophrenia; the prosecution later cited it when it opposed bail. Citizen Digital also reported a finding by the Chief Psychiatrist, David Kiima, and two colleagues that he was fit to plead and to instruct counsel and had good memory. In 2021 Justice Lessit noted that three doctors had reported a narcissistic mental disorder, and ruled that there was no evidence he was insane at the time of his arrest or at the start of the trial.
The trial opened before Justice Ombija. In 2011 the judge asked the senior counsel Paul Muite to defend him after other lawyers declined. Muite agreed and was joined by two other advocates. The prosecution team was led by Moses Omirera, who said seven civilian witnesses were ready for the Chelangat case. At one later hearing a prosecution witness's evidence was halted over a gap in his account of reports to police, and at another the court adjourned because the defense had not been given a witness statement. The dates of both hearings are not on record.
The case moved to Justice James Wakiaga. Citizen Digital reported that the judge heard 13 witnesses, two of them doctors, and found that Onyancha had a case to answer. The prosecutor, Omirera, then asked the court to find him guilty of murder but insane, to order that he be held at the pleasure of the President, and to set aside the confession statement. He told the court Onyancha was dangerous but needed help. Onyancha denied the charges.
On April 5, 2018 Justice Wakiaga declared a mistrial and ordered a fresh trial. Citizen Digital reported that an earlier ruling had treated Onyancha as mentally ill when the offences were alleged, so that putting him on his defense had been an error. Citizen Digital's later report on a bail application said the trial should have proceeded under section 162 of the Criminal Procedure Code, not section 166, because the mental problem was apparent from the start. Onyancha applied for bail pending the new trial, saying he was not insane. The prosecution opposed it, citing the risk to him and to the public. The court was to rule on November 1, 2018; the ruling is not on record.
On July 22, 2019 Justice Lessit struck out his confession statement. The Star reported that she held that police had broken the law by handcuffing him while he made it, which infringed his constitutional rights.
On Thursday, July 8, 2021 Justice Lessit acquitted Onyancha of the murder of Jacqueline Chepngetich Misoi on May 30, 2008 in Nairobi. He had denied the charge. The Star reported that the prosecution called 14 witnesses and that the judge held it had not proved guilt beyond reasonable doubt. She described the police investigation as "not thorough at the least, or manipulated at the worst."
Justice Lessit said she was persuaded that the woman may have been murdered but that no evidence pointed to Onyancha. The Star reported that she found his alibi credible. His own evidence was that he did not know the woman or her family and that she had died by suicide. Her boyfriend testified that he did not know who had killed her.
His lawyer, Mary Chepseba, stayed with the case after other advocates declined, and the judge thanked her. The Star reported that three doctors who examined him had found a narcissistic mental disorder, and that the judge found no evidence he was insane when he was arrested or when the trial began.
The verdict covered one case. The Star's fact-checking desk wrote on November 1, 2021 that a social media post claiming he had been released was misleading. His lawyer said he had been freed only in the case numbered 38 of 2010. Cases 36 and 37 of 2010 remained pending in the High Court, and a senior prison official confirmed he was still held at Kamiti Maximum Prison. The report mentioned an interview with him at Kamiti on September 28 of that year, and Kenyans.co.ke quoted him saying he had reformed and become a born-again Christian.
As of November 1, 2021, he was on remand at Kamiti with two murder cases pending. A verdict in either of those cases, a conviction or a finding on his mental state, is not on record.
The number of killings he claimed changes with the telling: 17 in the recorded confession and in several court reports, 19 in police statements to Capital FM and the Associated Press in June 2010, and 18 women and one child in 2018 reporting. No court has found any of them proved against him.
The child at the center of the first charge appears as aged nine in the 2010 reports and as 14 in Citizen Digital and Daily Nation pieces of 2018, which also give the year of the death as 2014. The June 2010 charge reports give the date as April 14 of that year.
The outcome of his bail application, the fate of the two co-accused, and the outcome of the Chelangat case and the case of the boy are not on record. No offence by the woman he named is on record.
2008, May 30: date of the death charged as the murder of Jacqueline Chepngetich Misoi.
2008, November 22: date of the death charged as the murder of Catherine Chelangat.
2009, April: charged in a Kibera court on a separate matter.
2010, March 25: leaves G4S.
2010, April: the death of the boy charged as murder.
2010, early June: arrested; says he killed 19.
2010, June 9: Capital FM reports the confessions and quotes Katola.
2010, June 15: charged in the High Court with the boy's murder, with two co-accused.
2010, June 18: two further murder charges filed.
2010, July 19: government psychiatrist's report finds him fit to plead; he pleads not guilty.
2011: Paul Muite asked to defend him.
2018, April 5: Justice Wakiaga declares a mistrial and orders a fresh trial.
2019, July 22: Justice Lessit strikes out the confession statement.
2021, July 8: acquitted of the Misoi murder.
2021, November 1: held at Kamiti Maximum Prison with cases 36 and 37 of 2010 pending.