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But not everyone is convinced. Kenya’s police force is known for corruption, brutality and incompetence.
Some high-profile murders, including those of several British citizens, have remained unsolved for decades.
Therefore, the rapid efficiency of Khalusha’s investigation has attracted attention.
The incident, which has sparked conspiracy theories, comes as the Kenyan capital reels from a violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations that erupted last month.
Dozens of protesters have been killed by police, and others have gone missing.
There were unconfirmed rumors that protesters were massacred in Gitule, a suburb 10 miles north of Mukuru, and their bodies hidden by police.
The disappearance of the suspect further deepened this speculation.
Kalusha, who is being held at a police station in Gigiri, Nairobi’s diplomatic district, retracted his confession in court, which his lawyer said was obtained under torture.
He was due to enter a plea in September.
But on Tuesday morning, prison guards discovered that Kalusha had disappeared from a communal cell overnight, along with 12 Eritreans detained on suspicion of immigration crimes.
Four men arrested for drunken disorder the night before remain in the cells.
Eight officers from the police department were subsequently suspended, with five of them accused of helping Kalusha escape for financial gain.
Troubling questions about his disappearance remain unanswered.
Why, for example, was the man accused of being Kenya’s most notorious serial killer locked up in the same cell as revelers arrested during a raucous night out?
Halusha appeared to live in poverty, living in a 10ft by 10ft one-room hut in a squalid apartment block for which neighbours said he paid £12 a month in rent.
“This guy is a poor boy from a poor family,” said Vincent Okwero, a fellow Mukuru resident who has known Kalusha for two years.
“He ekes out a living by selling Sim cards on the street, earning a pittance from them. Where does he get the money to bribe the police and plan a jailbreak like this?”
So how did Halusa escape? Police have conflicting accounts, with some saying he and other escapees smashed a mesh window, while others say his cell door was simply opened.
It is unclear what explanation Kalusha’s four drunk and disorderly inmates have for the incident.
Gigiri is also home to many diplomatic missions, including the US Embassy and the regional headquarters of the United Nations.
But so far, no CCTV footage has emerged of the 13 men slinking around at night, while security guards stationed near the police station said they did not see anything unusual that night.
It’s not that these questions can’t be answered with a clumsy answer.
Suspects have indeed escaped police custody before, including Kevin Kangethe, who allegedly left the body of his murdered girlfriend in the trunk of his car at Boston Logan Airport last year before fleeing to Kenya.
In January this year, Kanget disappeared from another police station during a meeting with his lawyer, who coincidentally was also representing Kalusha.
Kanget was later recaptured and a judge this month ordered his extradition to the United States.
It is not surprising that some suspect something more sinister is at play, given the lack of confidence many Kenyans have in the police.
To them, it was entirely possible that Kalusha was a fraud, framed by the police or persuaded to confess with the promise of money, escape, and a new identity.
‘We were deceived’
Some people worry that after completing his mission, Kalusha may even be in danger of his life.
“The truth about Kenya can never be revealed,” said Dixon Babu, an acquaintance of Mukuru in Kalusha.
“They lied to us. We know he didn’t run away. He was kidnapped and this might be the last time he was heard from.”
Distrust of the police is so pervasive that in Mukuru’s Kwa Njenga area, where Khalusha lives, it is hard to find anyone who believes he is guilty.
Kalusha’s apartment is located at the end of a narrow corridor in a ramshackle building, most of which are partitioned off by aluminum panels.
Here, residents say, all arguments can be heard and all secrets known.
“There’s no such thing as privacy in Skid Row,” said resident Joel Tyson.
“We knew everything about his daily life. He couldn’t have murdered 42 women and we didn’t know anything about it.”
Neighbor Janae Aketch described Kalusha as a shy man who brought many women home during the two years he lived in the area.
“But the thing is, I always see them leaving again,” the barber said.
“I never heard any screaming. I never heard any noises – but I can tell you, I should have heard it.”
The bodies of most of the 42 women killed by Kalusha remain missing.
Police said he dumped all of his victims in a water-filled quarry that had long been used as a garbage dump.
Police said that because most of the bodies recovered from the quarry were cut into at least three parts and put into nylon bags, they did not know how many bodies had been collected so far – although the number was unlikely to be more than nine.
“In total we have collected 17 pieces of body parts,” said police spokesperson Resila Onyango.
“The bodies were dismembered and in varying stages of decomposition, making identification difficult.”
Those who make a living picking up trash at the quarry and helping to recover bodies say it is impossible that they have not already found all the bodies.
Enoch Kimanzi, one of the rag pickers, said the quarry was a place where people often committed suicide, but due to the churning of the water, the bodies would all float to the surface within a few days.
“I can assure you that we have searched everywhere,” he said. “There are no more bodies here.”
The view was shared by the local chief, Evans Munene, who also noted that only one woman was missing in the Mukuru area.
So where did the rest of the bodies go, or did Khalusha admit to killing more people for reasons he knew only too well?
Yet if there are some troubling issues with the case, the idea that police killed the victims seems equally implausible, since all of them — unlike most of the protesters who died — were women, and none had gunshot wounds.
Activists and protest organizers believe it is more likely that, if there was a conspiracy, the police framed Kalusha because the government was pressuring them to solve the case quickly to avoid further inciting protesters’ anger.
As the bodies were being retrieved, police had to fire into the air to disperse protesters from around the quarry and a nearby police station.
“There are at least two other theories to consider,” said Eric Ambuche, a community activist in Mukuru.
“The way the bodies were mutilated could indicate a cult killing or organ harvesting gang. Such incidents are not unknown in the Nairobi slums and should be investigated.
“But this is Kenya. I fear we will never know the answer.”
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