Details have emerged on how three terrorism convicts planned and executed their prison break from the Kamiti Maximum Prison on Monday night, November 15.
It took detectives from the Serious Crimes Investigations Unit of the DCI and prison authorities more than eight hours to analyse and deduce how the scheme that saw the terror convicts escape from the highly guarded Kamiti prison was hatched.
The team led by Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), George Kinoti, established that the most wanted trio could have been aided by prisons wardens to escape.
The investigations revealed that the terror suspects dislodged a brick on the wall of their cell in Kamiti before escaping. The detectives working on the case are trying to piece together information on how three managed to dislodge the brick without the wardens noticing the commotion.
It is through that wall that the three were monitoring the wardens as they continued orchestrating their escape plan. The detectives stated that the trio could sometimes block the opening created by the dislodged brick using a card board in order to disguise it.
The night they escaped, the trio reportedly improvised by super creative means. They used blankets and broomsticks to create makeshift ropes that they used to scale two high walls around the correctional facility.
It was also established from the intensive eight-hour probe that the terror convicts had drilled the wall where they dislodged the block. The drilling went from the inside to the outside of the prison.
Sources went on to reveal that a rusty chisel and razor blades were recovered during the operation. The chisel was reportedly used to dislodge the brick while the razor blade was used to cut the blanket into ropes that were used to scale the walls.
The three managed to beat three layers of security to escape. Outside the cells, a team of officers is always on patrol supported by another team of officers from five watchtowers who can see all corners of the jail from their positions.
Kamiti compound is well lit with very powerful lights erected at strategic points illuminating the entire premise. On top of that, the facility is fitted with CCTV cameras that monitor activities inside and outside the cells.
Seven officers who were arrested and arraigned will continue being in custody for 25 days pending investigations as they are believed to have abetted the terror convicts to escape.
The three fugitives are Musharaf Abdalla alias Alex Shikanda (34) from Mumias, sentenced to 22 years in prison, Joseph Juma Odhiambo (30) from Matungu, serving 15 years for terror related crimes, and Mohammed Ali Abikar (35) serving a 41-year-jail term, having been convicted in 2019 with three others for their role in the Garissa University attack.
Kenya Prisons Commissioner General, Wyclife Ogallo, has been forced to spend all his time trying to solve the puzzle that has shocked the entire nation. He continued with internal investigations and departmental meetings where he read the riot act to his officers.
