Suspect in murder of patient in KNH ward arrested at the hospital
Homicide detectives Thursday arrested the prime suspect behind the gruesome Kenyatta National Hospital ward murder.
Kennedy Kalombotole’s arrest follows the brutal murder of Edward Maingi Ndegwa, on July 17, 2025, a patient admitted in Ward 7B, Group C (Male), on July 11, 2025.
According to initial reports, the ward nurse had checked the patient at 11:30 a.m. and taken his blood pressure.
At 12:30 p.m., a relative visited and found him stable, leaving the ward at around 1:30 p.m.
However, at approximately 2:00 p.m., a cleaner going round cleaning the corridor noticed blood pooling around the patient’s neck.
Upon visiting the scene, detectives noticed bloody slippers prints from the victim’s bedside to a nearby toilet and eventually to a side room, where the suspect, Kalombotole, was admitted.
In the room, investigators recovered a pair of blue slippers and a blood-stained bedsheet.
Also, on the ground, directly to the 7th floor where the window to the deceased’s ward is, they recovered a knife wrapped in gloves. The recovered items were forwarded to the National Forensic Laboratory for detailed forensic analysis to augment the case.
Preliminary investigations indicate that Kalombotole was admitted to the facility on December 1, 2024, and is the prime suspect in the murder of Gilbert Kinyua Muthoni, 40, who was murdered in Ward 7C during the night of 6th and February 7, 2025.
Following the incident, a case file was compiled and submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). However, after reviewing the file, the ODPP directed the Investigating Officer to undertake further inquiries to reinforce the prosecution’s case.
Police believe the suspect is a serial killer but also fear he may not be fit to stand trial.
In the Thursday July 17 incident Ndegwa was found dead in his bed with his throat slashed.
The motive of the latest incident is yet to be known.
Witnesses said the victim was a physically disabled man.
The witness added the man had his throat slit.
Kilimani police Commander Patricia Yegon and her DCI counterpart Hussein Mahat spent the better part of the afternoon Thursday at the scene as part of probe into the murder.
KNH acting Chief Executive Officer Dr William Sigiliai said they were deeply saddened to confirm an incident regarding the tragic death of a patient at the biggest regional hospital.
“On the afternoon of 17th July 2025 at around 2 pm, immediately after visiting hours, a patient was discovered in a medical ward in blood-soaked beddings. The patient was examined and certified dead.”
“The matter has since been reported to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and other government security agencies.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the patient’s family during this difficult time.
We will provide updates as more information is availed,” he said in a statement.
This is the second such incident to happen at the hospital this year after that of February 7, 2025.
Kinyua, 39, was last February found on a hospital bed with a slit throat.
Pathologists who conducted an autopsy on the body at the hospital mortuary said the slit was about three centimeters deep.
This caused the death.
Kinyua’s body also had blisters in the back indicating he had not moved from the same position for long.
Homicide detectives handling the matter say they are still investigating murder.
The detectives interrogated a patient who was sharing a ward with the late Kinyua as they collected swabs for DNA analysis.
He told them he could not recall anything that happened on that night.
The hospital said that all CCTV footage from Ward 7B has been availed to detectives, revealing that no CCTV cameras are installed in patient rooms for privacy reasons but they have been installed in all alleys.
It came nine years after a similar killing happened at the same facility.
Cosmas Mutunga Kenyatta, 42, who was found brutally murdered on his hospital bed in November 2015.
Mutunga was admitted to the hospital’s Ward 8C on November 8 and was found dead in the night with stab wounds and one of his eyes gouged out.
He was with an incapacitated and deaf cancer patient at the time he was killed. Three nurses were on duty on the night of the brutal murder.
The only witness to the murder was a 12-year-old patient who could neither hear, speak or write.
A postmortem report indicated that Mutunga was badly battered, his skull broken, eyes gouged out and one of his legs shattered in a sad episode that exposed security lapses at the region’s largest referral facility.
The father-of-four, was killed hours after his family visited him at the hospital and just days after they had donated blood to enable him undergo chemotherapy.
He was hit and stabbed 42 times in an act of violence.
Investigators found out that those who killed Cosmas Mutunga, a former procurement manager at Mada Hotels Limited, were a man and a woman.