Acting Inspector-General of Police Gilbert Masengeli arrives at Gigiri Police Station in Nairobi where 13 suspects, including murder suspect Collins Jumaisi Khalusha (right), escaped from police custody.
Police officers who were on night duty reported that when they opened the cells at Gigiri Police Station on Tuesday, August 20, morning for a headcount, they found four suspects instead of 17.
According to the officers, 13 detainees, including suspected serial killer Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, had broken out of jail by the time of the headcount at 5am.
However, this version of events conflicts with accounts put together by the Nation on Tuesday after news of the escapees, who include 12 Eritreans, became public.
According to a source privy to the developments, Jumaisi, 33, whom police initially said had confessed to killing 42 women, including his wife, had breakfast at the police station. Breakfast in police cells is normally served after the headcount, which is done between 5am and 6am.
This would mean the high-profile detainee was inside the cell long after the 12 had vanished.
Given this account, the puzzling questions are: At what time did Jumaisi escape? And under what circumstances?
Falling-out
Multiple sources told the Nation that Jumaisi was helped to flee long after the others because of a falling-out over a corrupt deal to aid the jailbreaks. We have since learnt of alleged infighting among rogue officers over the loot that the Eritreans had allegedly paid to buy their freedom.
According to our source, when those who felt short-changed found the 12 Eritreans missing, they chose to muddy the waters by freeing the most prized inmate, who would attract the most intense public outrage.
And that is how Jumaisi, according to this account, walked to freedom.
“Huyu jamaa wa Kware alikula breakfast hapa leo asubuhi (this guy wanted over Kware killings ate breakfast here this morning),” the source insisted.
The Nation also understands that senior Nairobi police commanders have questioned why such a high-value suspect appears to have been treated casually by police sentries at the station.
Jumaisi was set to be arraigned in court on Friday to take plea in the murder trial.
Following his arrest last month after the discovery of dismembered bodies at the Kware dumping site in Embakasi, Jumaisi was being detained at the station after the court gave detectives seven more days to investigate his alleged crimes before charging him.
The suspect later recanted the confession that he had killed 42 women, alleging that he had been tortured. Authorities have also reduced the murder cases to six following post-mortem examinations.
What is puzzling about the reported escape is how the 13 made away, especially given there were no reports of a broken cell door. Officers on night duty stationed at the main desk are often within a short distance from the cells.
Cutting wire mesh
An official report filed at the station under OB 05/20/08/2024 indicated that the 13 suspects had escaped by cutting the wire mesh at the basking bay.
Once you scale the wall to the basking area, there are stairs leading to the office of the Officer Commanding Station, Gigiri, on your way out. The station has a low-level live fence around it and from the police block to the main gate is about 50 metres.
The gate has sentries round-the-clock. None reported any incident until the discovery of the escape in the morning.
The police station is also within a secure neighbourhood given the high-profile installations therein, including diplomatic offices.
“The matter was reported by police officers Evans Kipkirui and Gerald Mutuku who were manning the cells. They had made their routine visit to the cells to serve the inmates breakfast when they discovered the suspects had escaped,” the police report reads.
Acting Inspector-General of Police Gilbert Masengeli, Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) boss Amin Mohamed and Deputy Inspector-General of Police Eliud Lagat visited the station and declared it a crime scene.
Mr Masengeli, apparently not convinced with the account of his officers, declared the incident an inside job interdicted and ordered the detention of eight police officers pending investigations.
The eight police officers include the Gigiri sub-county police commander, the head of the station, the duty officer, duty non-commissioned officer, station guards and report office personnel.
“We are investigating the incident and our preliminary investigations indicate that the escape was aided by insiders, considering that officers were deployed accordingly to guard the station,” Mr Masengeli said. “Consequently, I have interdicted eight officers who were on duty last night.”
Face the law
He added that 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 the public with any information that may lead to the re-arrest of the suspects, especially the murder suspect, Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, to report to the nearest police station,” said Mr Masengeli.
The police boss said they were screening the CCTV footage to give the investigators more details regarding the incident.
Jumaisi and two other suspects had been produced before Makadara Chief Magistrate Irene Gichobi, where the prosecution had asked the court to allow them to detain them for 21 days to complete investigations into the Kware murders.
After hearing submissions from both parties, the court ruled that Jumaisi, the main suspect, should be remanded at Gigiri Police Station for a further seven days.
The other two accused, Amos Momanyi and Moses Ogembo, were remanded at Muthaiga Police Station until August 26, when the case will be mentioned.
Since the discovery of the bodies, police have cordoned off the dumping site where the bodies were found in various stages of decomposition.
The victims were aged between 18 and 30 and were all killed in the same way, according to the police.
There was shock and outrage over the murders, and anger directed towards the police that such crimes could have gone unnoticed for so long.
Government pathologist Johansen Oduor, who conducted the post-mortem examinations on the mutilated bodies, said some of the bodies had decomposed, making it difficult to get finer details of how the victims died.
However, the team found that upper body parts had head injuries, indicating that the victims succumbed to excessive brain bleeding.
This is not the first time that police have been embarrassed by high-profile escapes.
In February this year, a Kenyan fugitive wanted in the United States of America for murder escaped from custody.
Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kang’ethe, the 40-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend in the US and 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.
Barely a week after his heavily publicised arrest, Kang’ethe is reported to have calmly walked out of Muthaiga Police Station barefoot and disappeared into thin air.
A police report indicated that he was visited by a man claiming to be his lawyer at around 5pm and 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.
Kang’ethe was later re-arrested and a Nairobi court has since issued an extradition order for him to be sent back to the US to face trial over the alleged murder of Margaret Mbitu.
Additional reporting by Kevin Cheruiyot
