Four police officers who were manning the Muthaiga Police Station when wanted murder suspect Kelvin Kinyanjui Kang’ethe escaped from custody have been interdicted as per a statement released on Friday, February 9, by Nairobi county police boss, Adamson Bungei.
In his statement, Bungei said that two other officers overseeing the four policemen have also been reassigned to different duty stations as part of disciplinary measures within the police force.
He added that Kang’ethe’s lawyer, John Ndegwa Maina, remains in police custody.
The action comes in the wake of Maina’s detention at Muthaiga Police Station shortly after Kang’ethe’s escape at around 5.30 pm on Wednesday, February 7. The authenticity of his role as Kang’ethe’s lawyer was called into question following the incident but Bungei disclosed on Friday that preliminary investigations have validated his identity as the suspect’s genuine legal representative.
Maina had reportedly visited Kang’ethe, in his capacity as his advocate, four times before his escape.
Kang’ethe is accused of killing a 31-year-old Kenyan-born woman based in Whitman, Massachusetts whose body was discovered inside a vehicle at Boston’s Logan Airport in November last year.
He was presented in court after his arrest in Nairobi 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 were several applications to be made including that of extradition to the US where he is wanted on murder charges.
“There being no objection and since 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 then.
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.
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