US fugitive escapes police custody in Kenya

A murder suspect who fled the US after allegedly killing his girlfriend has mysteriously escaped police custody in Kenya.

41-year-old Kelvin Kangethe was arrested last week while leaving a club in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, after months-long manhunt by Kenyan and US authorities.

A court had allowed police to hold him for 30 days awaiting his extradition.

But Kenyan police have disclosed that Mr Kangethe managed to walk out of the Nairobi police station where he was being detained on Wednesday evening and boarded a public transport vehicle.

Four police officers who were on duty and a lawyer who had met Mr Kangethe before he escaped have been arrested.

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Nairobi police commander Adamson Bungei told local media that the security lapse was “embarrassing” for Kenyan police, who have since launched a new search for Mr Kangethe.

The family of Mr Kangethe’s girlfriend, Margaret Mbitu, told US media that she had been planning to end their relationship before he allegedly killing the 30-year-old Kenyan-American nurse working in Massachusetts.

Authorities say that after Mr Kangethe murdered his girlfriend last October, he abandoned her body in a car at the Boston Logan Airport. He then boarded a flight to Kenya, his country of origin.

A Kenyan court was due to rule on Friday whether Mr Kangethe should be tried in Kenya or be extradited to face first-degree murder charges in the US, after he claimed that he had renounced his US citizenship last year.

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Source: Africafeeds.com