A Kenyan man who police claim has confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women is among 13 people who have escaped from custody at a Nairobi police cell, police have said.

Collins Khalusha, 33, was described by police as a “vampire, a psychopath” when he was arrested in July after the discovery of bodies at an abandoned quarry in the Kenyan capital.

Police said on Tuesday that the officer in charge and the canteen manager at Gigiri police station realised the suspects were missing when they went to serve them breakfast at 5am.

Khalusha and the other inmates, who were of Eritrean origin and had been detained for allegedly being in Kenya illegally, cut through a wire mesh in their cells and climbed a perimeter wall, according to police.