André Charles Stander, the South African criminal and policeman used his off-days and official lunch breaks to commit bank robberies. He would put on a fake beard, walk into a local bank, rob it at gunpoint, and calmly walk back to his workstation.
Because he was a Captain in the South African Police (SAP) attached to the Kempton Park Criminal Investigation Department (CID), police dispatchers would innocently assign Stander to lead the investigations where he would arrive at the scene, tamper with evidence and ask misdirecting questions that steered the investigations entirely away from himself.
To minimise suspicion closer home, he would fly from Johannesburg to Durban, rent a vehicle to commit robberies and return on a flight the same afternoon.
Later on, André Charles Stander went on to form ‘Stander Gang’, but his world crumbled in the 1980s when he was arrested and jailed.
In Kenya, the context is almost the same, where rogue police officers at Limuru police station in Kiambu are accused of aiding five suspected capital offenders to escape from a police cell, a day before they were to appear in Limuru Law Courts.
Intelligence reports point to an inside job, something the Nation has corroborated through interviews with police officers.
Interviews with police sources conversant with the matter reveal an elaborate plan of how rogue elements within the station aided the escape and attempted to cover up their role in the breakout.
The initial report by officers on duty stated that the five suspects – Moses Waswa (34), Simon Eshiwani (35), Daniel Ndichu Njoroge (22), Dedan Kariuki (35), and Edward Muriithi (21) escaped when they were being transferred to an inner cell on Wednesday at 11pm.
The holding cell where the five suspects were being held is just opposite the office of the Limuru police station’s commander.
On the night the five escaped, the cell was manned by two police constables.
An insider at the station told the Nation that a claim by the officers on duty that they were overpowered during a commotion is false, and part of an attempt to cover up what really happened.
A third police constable who is said, in the initial incident report to have responded to the commotion, was also armed.
Our source added that the police constables on duty did not raise alarm immediately after the five suspects had escaped. The suspects left one at a time through the station’s main gate and got onto motorcycles that were waiting for them.
“Whatever was put out in the police dispatch is a lie. There was no commotion, the five were let out and it was after they left the gate and were picked up by people who were waiting for them in a motorcycle that alarm was raised. Ask yourself why the police officers on duty never fired and yet they were armed. They are still at work and have not been suspended,” a police source conversant with investigations told the Nation .
Limuru Sub-County Police Commander Mary Njoki.
Photo credit: Pool
Limuru Sub-County Police Commander Mary Njoki confirmed that the officers who were on duty during the escape are still at work, but that investigations into the jailbreak are ongoing.
“We are currently doing investigations and they can only be suspended if the investigations point at them but as we speak, the matter is complex and I do not want to discuss it further,” Ms Njoki said on phone.
The three officers on duty that night claimed that they were cornered. They also complained about pain.
“Police constable [name withheld] was pushed down and stepped on. He complains of a headache, back and stomach pains. Police constable [name withheld] suffered chest pains and headache when he was pushed to a wall. Police constable [name withheld] complains of extreme pain on the left-hand shoulder, pain on the left rib cage and swollen right-hand fore finger,” a police report seen by Nation reads in part.
The investigations into the matter is further complicated by the fact that Limuru police station lacks CCTV Cameras and it would be difficult for investigators to conclusively analyse the circumstances of that day.
Moses Waswa, Simon Eshiwani, Daniel Ndichu Njoroge, Dedan Kariuki and Edward Muriithi had been arrested on October 14 and were presented in court a day later. Prosecutors and investigators asked the court for 21 days to hold them pending conclusion of a probe into their alleged involvement in robbery with violence and gang rape.
They escaped on November 4, a day before their scheduled plea taking.
On October 16, the police constable was one of two officers tasked with watching 26-year-old Geoffrey Otieno.
Otieno had been arrested on September 11 in Limuru after allegedly attempting to break into a shop. Members of the public subjected Otieno to mob justice, in which the suspect sustained serious injuries.
He was admitted to Kiambu Level 5 Hospital, with two officers on duty to watch him. Otieno was handcuffed to his hospital bed. But on October 16, after 35 days in bed, the suspect mysteriously disappeared from the health facility.
“A pair of handcuffs used to restrain the suspect was found on the hospital bed unlocked. Efforts to trace the said suspect are underway with DCI Kiambu dealing,” the incident report read.
The escape of the five capital offenders while under police custody rekindles the memories of Kevin Kang'ethe who had been arrested on January 30, 2024, under an Interpol Red Notice for the murder of his girlfriend, Margaret Mbitu, in Boston, Massachusetts.
People walk past the entrance to Muthaiga Police Station in Nairobi on February 08. Kevin Kang’ethe (inset), who is accused of killing his girflriend in the US and fleeing to Kenya, escaped from the station.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group
On the evening of February 7, 2024, Kang'ethe walked out of an interrogation room at Muthaiga Police Station during a visit by a man posing as his lawyer, then slipped past guards and into traffic along Thika Road.
Four police officers – Elijah Kipkorir, James Maina, Ann Wanjiku and Hassan Saman were charged with aiding Kang’ethe’s escape.
On October 13, 2021 three police officers – Philip Mbithi, Boniface Mutuma and Precious Mwende Mwinzi – were charged with allegedly aiding self-confessed serial killer Masten Wanjala to escape. They denied the charges. The court in 2024 found that they had a case to answer.
Wanjala had confessed to drugging and killing 10 minors in Nairobi. He was killed by an angry mob in Bungoma County two days after his escape.
Five police officers were also arrested on August 20, 2024 when another suspected serial killer, Collins Jumaisi, escaped from Gigiri police station.
Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, a suspect who police say confessed to killing 42 women including his wife, at a past court appearance.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Jumaisi, who had been arrested over suspicion of killing dozens of women before dumping their bodies in a dumpsite in the Kware area of Embakasi South in Nairobi, was among 13 suspects who escaped custody that night.
Two other officers attached to Molo police station are also under investigation for alleged aiding of the escape of Benson Muchiri, a murder suspect who was being guarded while receiving medical attention at Nakuru Level 5 Hospital.
