Justice Jessie Lessit acquits famous serial killer Philip Onyancha

The High Court of Kenya has acquitted confessed serial killer Philip Onyancha in the killing of Jackline Chepng'etich Misoi.

In a ruling delivered by Court of Appeal Judge Jessie Lessit, the court found that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had not provided enough evidence to implicate Onyancha in the murder.

Pointing out oversights in the nature of the evidence provided to the court, Justice Lessit placed some the responsibility on the investigating police officers.

"All these are disheartening omissions the ones being failure to investigate a stain on the deceased door captured by the crime scene investigator, why would the police not follow this line of investigation?" Justice Lessit observed.

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Jackline was murdered in May 2008 in Nairobi CBD, near the Mount Kenya University building.

Onyancha had also been accused of the murder of 32-year-old Catherine Chelang'at whose decomposing body was found in Karen.

Onyancha owned up to 19 murders

The accused confessed to having committed 19 murders over a span of two years, in addition to showing the police where he had disposed of the bodies.

The shocking confession grew more gruesome when he added: "My target was to kill 100 women. I managed 17 and there were 83 to go."

Speaking about his past, Onyancha revealed that he had been repeatedly molested as a minor by a worker in their family home, an occurrence which he claimed had left him traumatized.

In a later hearing of the case against him, Mr Onyancha revealed that he had accomplices for some of the murders.

Onyancha named Tobias Arad and Douglas Obiero as his co-accused, however, denying the murder of a 9-year-old boy Anthony Muiruri which had been pinned on the trio.