Police are hunting for a suspect who escaped from custody in Webuye, Bungoma County.
The suspect identified as Ben Sifuna had been detained for claims of stealing and after he had been involved in a mob injustice incident.
He sustained injuries and was rescued by police who took him to the Webuye County Hospital.
A police officer was tasked to take care of him to heal before he is processed and arraigned.
Come August 20 at 4 am, the suspect requested to be taken to the toilet at the hospital.
Police say it was then that he scaled through the hospital toilet and escaped to an unknown place.
The officer who was waiting for him outside came to know of it minutes later after realizing Sifuna had taken too long in the toilet.
It was then he raised an alarm calling for help to trace the suspect and re arrest him.
A search was conducted in vain. He had escaped.
A team of detectives visited the scene and processed it as the hunt for the suspect goes on.
The incident comes on the same day serial murder suspect Collins Jumaisi and 12 other Eritreans escaped from Gigiri police station in what officials have termed as an inside job.
And following the incident, eight police officers have been interdicted, police authorities said.
The officers were briefly detained for grilling over the saga.
Acting Inspector General of police Gilbert Masengeli said among those interdicted include the Gigiri Sub County Police Commander, OCS Gigiri Police Station, Duty Officer, Duty NCO, Station Guards and Report Office Personnel.
He said the 12 Eritrean nationals were arrested for being illegally in Kenya and were waiting to be repatriated.
“Our preliminary investigations indicate that the escape was aided by insiders, considering that officers were deployed accordingly to guard the station.”
“Consequently, I have interdicted eight officers who were on duty last night,” he said.
Masengeli said the matter is currently under investigation by the Internal Affairs Unit, and any person found culpable will face the law.
“We have launched a manhunt to re-arrest the escapees. We further appeal to members of public with any information that may lead to the re-arrest of the suspects especially the murder suspect, Collins Jumaisi Kalusha to report to the nearest police station or through the police hotline numbers 999, 112, 911, and 0800 722 203,” he said.
Masengeli was accompanied by director DCI Mohamed Amin and DIG Kenya police Eliud Lagat among other senior officers.
The team inspected where the suspects escaped and spent four hours at the station.
The officers also talked to the officers who were on duty and checked on the cells where the suspects were being held.
There were 17 suspects in custody at the time of the incident. Only four remained and have all been interrogated.
They said they did not know how the suspects escaped as they were a sleep then.
Police on duty said the suspects cut a wire mesh at the station cells and scaled a wall before they used a window behind the station report office.
Police came to know of what happened as they woke up the suspects in custody for morning tea.
That was at about 5 am. They had escaped at about 3 am.
Gigiri police station is one of the modern stations in the country.
It is hard to break out of the station cells given the only exit there is through the report office.
That is why the officers on duty insist they used the rear door on the first floor after leaving the cells to scale down.
It is however not clear how they could escape without being heard given the commotion they could have caused.
But after inspecting the station, the police bosses were not convinced it was an escape.
They said the suspects were aided by insiders.
The officers on duty were grilled and detained pending investigations internally and possible arraignment.
Jumaisi admitted to killing a total of 42 women. He denied the charges in court.
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