Police Trace Location Of Mobile Phone Used By Escaped Suspect Kevin Kang'ethe

“At the time of the escape the station commander was chairing a meeting/lecture with all the Anti-crime personnel and members of the inspectorate while at her office, she was alerted by a loud noise of officers who were chasing the prisoner along Thika Super Highway but they did not manage to re-arrest him,” the report read in part.

The officers were, however, unable to catch up with him as he managed to outmanoeuvre them in meticulous circumstances, and in broad daylight.

Staff Officer Operations (SOOPs) attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Regional Criminal Investigations Officers (RCIOs) in Nairobi and other senior officers visited the scene to establish how the events unfolded. 

The four officers were arrested alongside the alleged advocate and also recorded statements which will help determine if they helped Kang'ethe to escape.

Kang'ethe, who is alleged to have killed Mbitu at Logan International Airport in Boston, USA, was arrested on Monday night, January 29 in Nairobi's Westlands area and detained at Gigiri Police Station.

He was thereafter presented in court on a miscellaneous application where detectives were granted 30 days to detain him pending the conclusion of investigations.

The court while detaining him at Muthaiga police station noted that there was no objection to the application by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) on the seriousness of the offence.

Further, the DPP told the court that there are several applications to be made including that of extradition to the US where he is wanted on murder charges.

"There being no objection and owing to the fact that the DPP wants to extradite the suspect and the seriousness of this matter the accused is hereby detained at Muthaiga Police Station matter to be mentioned on 4th of March," ruled magistrate Zainab Abdul.

According to investigators, the suspect and the deceased were both residents of Massachusetts and are said to have been in a relationship.

Preliminary investigations indicate that Kang'ethe violently attacked and repeatedly stabbed the woman in the face and neck area causing catastrophic injuries that led to her death.

Further, the court was told that when fled to Kenya, the suspect went into hiding where he allegedly kept constant communication using various telephone numbers with his friends back in the US and a few of his family and friends here in Kenya.

According to multiple US media reports, Mbitu was found dead in a car on November 1, 2023, inside a car at the airport, 48 hours after she was reported missing.