Kenyan man allegedly caught carrying his wife’s body in a backpack

Kenyan police arrested a man carrying a mutilated body in his backpack that reportedly belonged to his 19-year-old wife.

Officers encountered John Kiama Wambua, 29, while patrolling Huruma, a district east of Nairobi, shortly before dawn.

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

This is far from an isolated case: Kenya has one of the highest rates of feminicide, or gender-based murders, in Africa.

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

He seemed “unfazed” by the officers’ discovery, he said.

After questioning, Wambua took officers to his home, where they discovered a knife, blood-soaked clothing and more body parts under a bed.

The DCI described the act as “heinous” and added 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 killed, the Kenya National Police Service said.

In December, hundreds of women protesting against a recent wave of femicides took to the streets of the capital, Nairobi. The police reportedly met them by firing tear gas.

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

The 33-year-old woman died days after being doused with gasoline and set on fire in 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.

Khalusha escaped from prison a month later and it seems that he is still at large.

Earlier that year, in a case that sparked widespread outrage, a young woman named Rita Waeni was brutally murdered in a short-term rental apartment. Police said they dismembered her and put her in a plastic bag.