For almost a year, a murder suspect thought Nairobi was a safe haven after allegedly killing his girlfriend in the US last October but on Tuesday, he was charged with murder.
Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kang’ethe was wanted for allegedly killing his girlfriend, Margaret Mbitu, a home health care aide in the town of Halifax, Massachusetts, between October 30 and November 1, 2023.
He reportedly dumped her body in a car at Logan Airport in Boston on October 31 before fleeing the country to Kenya until his luck run out last Friday when he was taken away by the FBI in a private jet.
On Tuesday, Kang’ethe pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail.
Kevin Kangethe in a Nairobi courtroom on February 1, 2024.
Prosecutors described how Kang’ethe took a Lyft ride on October 30, 2023, from his Lowell home to Mbitu’s workplace, where he met her as she was getting off work at about 11pm.
He then allegedly drove her back home in the vehicle she was driving, which prosecutors said was registered to him but was being used at the time by the victim, after meeting her at work.
Sometime between leaving her job and arriving at his home, prosecutors said he "brutally attacked" her in the car with a knife, causing multiple sharp force injuries to Mbitu's body, according to prosecutors, who said there were 10 wounds just to her face and neck alone.
Prosecutors said Kang’ethe then drove around looking for a place to dispose of the body, answering two calls from family and coworkers asking where she was. He told them she had suffered an injury and couldn't come to the phone. Eventually, they said he discarded her cell phone in a dumpster in Chelsea. The phone was used by investigators to help them track him and collect surveillance video.
Margaret Mbitu, 30, was found dead in a parking lot at Logan Airport in Boston, US.
Photo credit: Missing Person Poster
Kang’ethe left her body in the front seat of the heavily tinted car from the time of her death until some 30 hours later, when he drove the car to Logan Airport, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors further said that Mbitu's body was found in the front seat, face down with the seat reclined. They said the body was covered with random items to make it harder to see.
In court on Tuesday, the victim's family was visibly distressed and in tears as prosecutors detailed the events leading up to her death.
The Nation can now reveal how the US authorities quietly jetted into the country on Friday, August 30, 2024, and spirited away the wanted murder suspect.
Sources privy to the highly discreet, undercover operation revealed that the Americans flew into the country acting on extradition orders granted by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and under the cover of darkness, were handed the suspect by Kenyan authorities before they left the country just hours after they had landed.
Kang’ethe is said to have been handcuffed, ankle chained before boarding the US Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) jet (US DOJ/FBI G550 N708JH #A97316) to Boston.
FBI officials and Kenyan prosecutors escort wanted fugitive Kevin Kang'ethe onto a plane during his extradition from Nairobi to the US.
Photo credit: FBI
The jet departed Nairobi on Friday, August 30, night before landing at Boston Logan International Airport on Saturday morning, according to Flighttrack radar24 which monitors flights across the globe.
FBI, on Monday, confirmed that Kang’ethe arrived in the US on Saturday morning local time, which contradicts Monday's DPP’s office, which issued a statement saying that the wanted suspect left the country on Sunday, September 1.
“FBI special agents, along with a Massachusetts State trooper assigned to FBI Boston’s Violent Crimes Task Force, escorted Kangethe from Nairobi to Logan International Airport on a flight that arrived Saturday evening. The FBI leveraged its international resources to bring him back to Massachusetts and has transferred custody of Kangethe to the Massachusetts State Police,” an FBI statement dated September 2, 2024 reads in part.
However, according to a statement from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) dated the same day, the wanted fugitive left Nairobi on Sunday.
On Monday, the Boston Division of the FBI and the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office announced the successful extradition of Kangethe from Nairobi.
“Great teamwork! He is heading back to face justice! Thank you all,” read a caption below a photo of Kang’ethe being escorted to a private jet by detectives from the FBI believed to have been taken on Friday night.
In the photo, Kangethe, with his back to the camera, is donning a navy blue jumper and blue headsets as he ascends the stairs in the company of FBI detectives and officers from the DPP’s office.
The authority said that the US Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs worked with Kenyan authorities, including the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and ODPP, to secure Kangethe’s arrest and extradition, with the assistance of the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Nairobi, the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service’s Boston Field Office and Regional Security Office–Nairobi, and US Customs and Border Protection.
“Following an investigation by the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, an arrest warrant was issued for Kangethe out of Chelsea District Court on November 2, 2023, charging him with murder,” it said.
FBI added that the following day, investigators learned that Kangethe fled the US on October 31, 2023, after purchasing a one-way airline ticket to Nairobi, Kenya. “The FBI obtained a federal arrest warrant issued by the United States District Court in Massachusetts on November 3, 2023, charging Kangethe with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution,” the statement added.
In a statement on Monday, the family of the victim thanked Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden for his office's efforts to extradite Kang’ethe.
“Our family has been notified by District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office that the process for bringing justice for our beloved Maggie will continue tomorrow with the arraignment of the person charged with her murder,” Mbitu’s family said in a statement released Monday.
“We are deeply grateful to the District Attorney, investigators, police and victim advocates who have supported our family and are ensuring Maggie’s killer is held responsible,” the stamen read in part.
Kang’ethe, 40, is alleged to have violently attacked and repeatedly stabbed Mbitu, in the face and neck leading to her death before he fled to Kenya.
A warrant for his arrest was issued by a district court in Chelsea, Massachusetts, which was followed by an extradition request made to DPP Renson Ingonga.
He was arrested on January 30, 2024, in Parklands, Nairobi County, but escaped from custody before being re-arrested.
Mbitu, a home healthcare aide in the town of Halifax, went missing on October 30, 2023 after work, and efforts by the family to trace her were futile. A preliminary investigation showed that she left her place of work and travelled with Kang'ethe to Lowell where he lived.
The family reported her missing to the Whitman Police Department, who later enlisted the assistance of Massachusetts State Police.
Police found out that the deceased and Kang'ethe travelled to Lowell riding in a white Toyota Venza on the morning of October 31, 2023. On November 1, 2023, police discovered the body of Mbitu in the front passenger seat of the car.
He escaped to Kenya and went into hiding in various suburbs of Nairobi County, where he used various phone numbers to call his friends in the US as well as his family, relatives, and friends in Kenya.
After his initial arrest in Kenya, Kang'ethe escaped from Muthaiga Police Station under mysterious circumstances. At the time, police said he escaped while meeting with a man who claimed to be his lawyer.
While he was in the wind, family members are said to have held a meeting where a decision was made that he should be smoked out.
When the fugitive arrived at the rented house of his cousin, family members alerted the police.
“There was no way we could allow him to leave again because his escape from the station was putting a lot of people in trouble. Since we are law-abiding citizens, we had long decided that if anyone gets him, then we would hand him over,” a family member told the Nation at the time.
The success of the extradition comes after Mr Ingonga assured FBI Director Christopher Wray in June 2024 that his office was keen to ensure that justice in the case was done with speed.
