Police in Kenya have arrested a man carrying a mutilated corpse in his backpack, which he reportedly said belonged to his 19-year-old wife.

Officers came across 29-year-old John Kiama Wambua while patrolling Huruma, a district east of Nairobi, just before dawn.

Suspecting Wambua was carrying something illegal, they searched his backpack and “to their shock” found the body parts, said a statement from Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

This is far from an isolated case – Kenya has one of the highest rates of femicide, or killings with a gender-related motivation, in Africa.

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After police officers interrogated Mr Wambua, he told them that the body parts belonged to his wife, Joy Fridah Munani, according to the DCI statement.

He appeared “unperturbed” by the officers’ discovery, it said.

After the interrogation, Mr Wambua led the officers to his home, where they discovered a knife, blood-soaked clothes and more body parts under a bed.

The DCI described the act as “heinous”, adding that the suspect will be formally charged with murder during an upcoming court hearing.

Between August and October last year, at least 97 women were murdered, Kenya’s National Police Service said.

In December, hundreds of women protesting against a recent wave of femicides took to the streets of the capital, Nairobi. They were reportedly met by police firing teargas.

Kenya has seen several high-profile murders of women. In September 2024, Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei was killed by her former partner.

The 33-year-old died days after being doused in petrol and set alight at her home in western Kenya.

In July, police arrested Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, who they described as a “serial killer”, after the mutilated bodies of nine women were found in a disused quarry.

Mr Khalusha escaped from custody a month later and appears to still be on the run.

Earlier that year, in a case that sparked widespread outrage, a young woman named Rita Waeni was brutally murdered at a short-term rental apartment. The police said she was dismembered and stuffed into a plastic bag.

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