Kenya police hunt for 'serial-killer cult leader'

Last updated at 12:27 GMT, Thursday, 10 June 2010 13:27 UK

Kenyan police are hunting for an alleged cult leader who is said to have instructed a self-confessed serial killer to take up his killing spree.

Philip Onyancha, 32, was arrested on Sunday after confessing to killing 17 people, mainly women.

He said he was recruited into a cult while at school by a teacher, who told him to kill 100 people and drink their blood for good fortune.

The teacher, who recently moved schools, was not at work on Thursday.

The BBC's Ruth Nesoba in Kenya's Central Province says police have been questioning the school authorities about her possible whereabouts.

Suspicious

For the last three days, Mr Onyancha has been leading the police on a gruesome tour of the country.

With the media in tow, he has been showing them the places in Nairobi, Central Province and Rift Valley where he says he murdered his victims.

"My target was to kill 100 women. I managed 17 and there were 83 to go," he told Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.

On Wednesday, he took them to a private home where he had worked three years ago as a security guard.

There the remains of a woman were recovered from a sewer.

Mr Onyancha also led the police to cheap lodges where he admitted killing several prostitutes. He has also admitted kidnapping several children.

So far, four bodies have been found and he had led police to the sites of several unresolved murders.

The BBC's East Africa correspondent Will Ross says that for the police, these admissions conveniently close the cases.

For that reason some Kenyans are left feeling a little suspicious as to whether Mr Onyancha's version of events is entirely true, he adds.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/10284299.stm