Senior police officers were last evening under pressure to explain the circumstances under which a fugitive on international watch escaped from custody on Wednesday evening.
Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kangethe, the 40-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend in the United States of America then fleeing to Kenya to evade justice, had been on the run for three months when he was arrested by Kenyan detectives at a night club on January 30.
His arrest drew the attention of the US, whose officials, in a brief statement, thanked Kenyan authorities for finally apprehending the man accused of killing his girlfriend in a Massachusetts neighbourhood, stashing her body in a car, driving it to an airport parking lot, and catching a flight to Nairobi.
Margaret Mbitu, 30, was found dead in a parking lot at Logan Airport in Boston, US.
Photo credit: Missing Person Poster
But on Wednesday evening, barely a week after his heavily publicised arrest, Kang’ethe is reported to have calmly walked out of Muthaiga Police Station and disappeared into thin air.
A police report indicated that he was visited by a man claiming to be his lawyer at around 5pm on Wednesday evening. Police officers at the station opened the door to his small cell and escorted him, barefoot, to a small office within the main administration block that also serves as an interrogation room.
A few minutes later, police reported the fugitive’s escape from the station and promptly arrested the lawyer, whom they found still in the interrogation room.
It is not clear what transpired inside the station between the lawyer’s visit and the moment police officers ran out of the station in hot pursuit of the suspect.
Detectives were last night also examining the circumstances of the escape, and the Nation understands that senior Nairobi police commanders have raised questions regarding why such a high-risk fugitive appears to have been treated casually by police sentries at the station.
Kevin Kang'ethe before Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina at Milimani Law Courts on February 01, 2024, where he has been brought on extradition proceedings against the murder of Margaret Mbitu in the United States of America.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei is reported to have referred to the incident as “embarrassing” to the police service as he ordered the arrest of all the four police officers who were on sentry duty when Kang’ethe staged his daring escape.
“We have nabbed four police officers who were on duty when the suspect escaped. I would advise him to surrender to the police because very soon we shall arrest him,” Mr Bungei said.
From across the fence yesterday, nothing could betray the chaos inside the quaint police station off Thika Road, just a few metres from the junction to Kiambu. A fresh coat of white-and-blue paint radiated off the colonial-style bungalow that also serves as the main report office and detention centre.
Kevin Kang'ethe in court for the alleged murder of girlfriend in US
About 10 cars were parked in the front yard, recently paved with bitumen and a dash of paving blocks. More cars were parked in the backyard, filling up the small area that divides the main administration block and the residential quarters. Two armed sentries manned the main entrance to the station, facing the busy Thika Highway, and a tall chain link fence ran the entire perimeter of the facility.
How Kang’ethe, barefoot and apparently not hand-cuffed, just walked through the doors of this heavily guarded zone, down through the front yard, through the main gate and into the human and vehicular maze of Thika Road is the stuff of legend, and detectives are interrogating those in custody to establish whether or not he was aided.
It would take a man with a great sense of derring-do to make the dash from the main gate to whichever direction, and the accounts of three witnesses that we talked to appeared to contradict those of the police on what transpired.
While the police said Kang’ethe ran out the station and boarded a matatu, three witnesses suggested that he could have been picked by a car that trailed him as he ran in the easterly direction of the station, towards the National Youth Service barracks just a few metres away.
“I saw a man running barefoot yesterday,” said one of the witnesses who vends sweets, sodas and pastries just outside the station. “He wasn’t running that fast, and two men were trailing him. There was also a car behind them and they disappeared into the traffic. We didn’t take it seriously as no one raised any alarm.”
A bus stop next to Muthaiga Police Station in Nairobi on February 8, 2024, where Kevin Kangethe, who is accused of killing a woman in the US, is said to have boarded a matatu after escaping from police cells.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group
Another witness, who runs a small kiosk in the vicinity, said he saw a man run past with two men in pursuit. One of the men was in police uniform while the other was in civilian attire, and they both turned back after a short while.
“They should have told us to apprehend him because he wasn’t that fast,” said the man. “In fact, we thought they were just joking with him. This place is full of people, including we roadside vendors, matatu drivers and their conductors, and general public. We would have arrested him had they told us to.”
Boda boda riders who ply their trade from right across the station said they did not see or hear anything unusual on Wednesday evening. They were responding to suggestions that Kang’ethe could have run across the road and vanished into the dense expanse of Mathare through a narrow road that joins the slum and the highway.
No bullet was fired during the incident, and no one was harmed, according to police records. Police standing orders allow officers to shoot at a suspect who is fleeing lawful custody, and the question of why Kang’ethe was allowed to vanish into thin air in broad daylight will form part of the investigation report.
Witnesses said he turned left after exiting the gate, ran past the busy bus stop right outside the station, and disappeared into the afternoon traffic of the busy highway. No one saw him climb the stairs onto the footbridge about 300 metres from the police station, and one witness suggested, without evidence, that the fugitive could have disappeared into the small forest east of the station, about 500 metres away, that borders Mathare River.
To understand the puzzle detectives are trying to piece together, one needs to look at the layout of the administration block at the station. From the gate, one walks directly into the imposing entrance that also acts as the report office, which is usually guarded by at least two police officers. There is a small door that leads to the inner sanctums of the block, including the holding cells and crime investigation desks, both of which are to the left of the entrance.
Kevin Kangethe is wanted for the murder of his girlfriend Margaret Mbitu.
Photo credit: Boston Police
Kang’ethe was in the cells when he was called to speak to his lawyer on Wednesday evening. He was led out of his cell barefoot and escorted to the small room where he was to meet with the lawyer. The room is at the farthest corner of the block, to the left, with a small window facing Kiambu Road across the fence. Access to this room is through one door, which leads to the front report office and on to the gate. Kang’ethe is said to have made his dash to freedom through this security maze undetected, and the sentries at the gate only realised they has lost one of the most wanted men moments after he slithered through the gate.
The fugitive had been on Interpol’s Red Notice before he was arrested in the Parklands neighbourhood of the city a week ago. A Red Notice, which is issued by the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. It is based on an arrest warrant or court order issued by the judicial authorities in the requesting country.
Kang’ethe’s Red Notice was issued by the US after police officers discovered the remains of his girlfriend in a car parked at the Logan International Airport.
Kang’ethe and his girlfriend, 31-year-old Margaret Mbitu, had lived in the US for years. She was a health care aide in Halifax, a small town in Massachusetts, and had last been seen leaving work on October 30. Investigations showed that, soon after leaving work, Margaret had travelled with Kangethe to Lowell, another small town in the same state.
There, police said, he stabbed her several times in the face and neck, drove her lifeless body to Logan International Airport, and boarded a flight to Nairobi. The police trail on him went cold until January 30 this year, when he was arrested in a nightclub in the capital.
