A special multi-agency team has been formed to nab Kelvin Kang'ethe, the main suspect in the murder of Kenyan nurse Margaret Mbitu at a United States airport in November last year, whose daring escape from Muthaiga Police station puzzled detectives.
Police sources privy to the matter told the press on Thursday that they traced Kang'ethe's phone signals to Machakos County and have narrowed the search to the Nairobi Metropolis area.
The special team will seek to unearth Kang'ethe's trail and find individuals he contacted within the last 48 hours and also reach out to locals for information on the suspect's exact whereabouts.
The police will also seek to establish any possible accomplices and identify how he sneaked out of the police station to Machakos County.
Further, witnesses unearthed details of Kang'ethe's puzzling escape, explaining how he exited the station's gate without handcuffs and vanished into the traffic.
According to a vendor who sells sweets a few metres from Muthaiga Police Station, the suspect was reportedly picked up by a vehicle that was trailing him as he ran east of the station, towards the National Youth Service barracks, located a few metres away.
"I saw a man running barefoot yesterday. 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 so no one raised any alarm," the vendor stated.
Another witness stated that he saw two men pursuing the suspect; one in police uniform while the other in civilian attire. After a while, he noticed that the duo both turned back and headed back to the station.
"They should have told us to apprehend him because he wasn't running that fast," the witness explained.
"In fact, we thought that they were just joking with him. This place is full of people, including roadside vendors, matatu drivers, conductors and the public. We would have arrested him had they told us to."
The witness confirmed that no bullet was fired during the chase despite police standing orders allowing detectives to shoot a suspect who was fleeing lawful custody.
Kang'ethe is also speculated to have vanished into a small forest, east of the station.
Following the incident, Nairobi Police boss Adamson Bungei ordered the arrest of four police officers manning the station at the time of the escape alongside the suspect's alleged lawyer.
They will seek to unravel how the suspect escaped the station in broad daylight.
