Details have emerged about how a man awaiting extradition on a Massachusetts warrant alleging he killed his girlfriend and left her body in a car at the Boston airport escaped from police custody.
Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kang’ethe slipped out of a police station cell and jumped into a matatu and escaped towards Thika on Wednesday February 7 evening, police said.
This prompted a fresh search on him even as four police officers who were on duty were detained over the escape.
Four police officers and a lawyer were arrested over the drama and are helping in the probe into the same.
It has emerged the escape happened as Kang’ethe met a lawyer at the station at about 5 pm.
According to police, Kang’ethe had been removed from his cells after the lawyer came to the station and said he wanted to have a word with him ahead of the planned hearing of his extradition case on Friday February 9.
The lawyer identified as John Maina Ndegwa who introduced himself to the officers as a personal advocate to the prisoner said he wished to talk to him.
Ndegwa is among those who appeared for him last week in court.
The officers agreed to his request and removed the prisoner from the cells and took him to one of the anti-crime offices there leaving them there.
After a short while the prisoner escaped by running away and left the advocate behind, police said.
At the time of the escape senior police officers there were coincidentally holding a meeting/lecture with all the anti-crime personnel.
The officers who were manning the fugitive said they realized Kang’ethe had escaped after walking into the room and found the lawyer there alone.
They raised the alarm and rushed out after seeing Kang’ethe race towards Thika Road.
Kang’ethe jumped onto a matatu that was at the bus stop and asked the driver to take off amid shouts from the officers who were apparently chasing him.
Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei said a fresh search for him began immediately.
The police chief said he rushed to the station when he learned of the escape.
Kenyan police have been ranked as the most corrupt institution in the country for decades, and his escape raised suspicions that bribes were paid for his freedom.
Other suspected killers have escaped police custody in the past.
Kangethe, 40, had been detained pending a ruling on whether he should be extradited to face a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Margaret Mbitu on October 31, 2023.
Massachusetts State Police said in early November 2023 that Kang’ethe had left her body in a car at Logan International Airport and boarded a flight to Kenya.
Massachusetts officials said they were working with Kenyan authorities to locate him, and he was arrested in a nightclub on January 30 after being on the run for three months.
Kang’ethe had renounced his U.S. citizenship, which prompted the extradition process.
The court had approved a police application for him to be detained for 30 days while the extradition issue was heard.
Officials said had he been an American citizen, he would have been repatriated without a court process.
On February 2, prosecutor Vincent Monda asked the court to endorse the U.S. warrant for Kang’ethe’s arrest and issue directions for the extradition proceedings.
The suspect’s lawyer sought directions on surrendering Kang’ethe to the U.S. and opposed his continuing detention as disregarding his rights.
Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina was to give further directions on the matter and issue orders related to the bond issue on Monday, February 9.
Mbitu, a health care aide in Halifax, was last seen leaving work Oct. 30 and reported missing by her family.
The prosecution in Kenya said the preliminary investigation showed Mbitu had left her workplace and traveled with Kang’ethe to Lowell, where he lived, the prosecution said.
It is not the first time such an escape has happened.
For instance, on October 14, 2021, self-confessed serial child killer Masten Wanjala, 20, has escaped from police custody in Nairobi.
Wanjala, who had recently confessed to killing 10 children in Bungoma, western Kenya, reportedly escaped from police cells in Nairobi under unclear circumstances.
A mob in his hometown of Bungoma traced him to a house and beat him to death a couple of days later.
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