Nairobi: Five Kenyan police officers appeared in court on Wednesday, suspected of helping a man accused of murdering and dismembering dozens of women escape from a Nairobi police cell.
Police launched a manhunt on Tuesday after alleged serial killer Collins Jumaisi and 12 Eritreans broke out of a police station in an upmarket area of the Kenyan capital.
Jumaisi, 33, described by police as a “vampire, a psychopath”, was arrested last month after the horrific discovery of a number of mutilated female bodies in a rubbish dump in a slum area of the Kenyan capital.
Police say he has confessed to murdering 42 women over a two-year period from 2022, with his wife his first victim, but the suspect has claimed he was tortured after his arrest.
He and the other detainees escaped by cutting through a wire mesh roof at the station and scaling a perimeter wall, police said.
“Our preliminary investigations indicate that the escape was aided by insiders,” acting national police chief Gilbert Masengeli said Tuesday.
Five officers, including a woman, appeared in a Nairobi court on Wednesday, with prosecutors seeking an order to detain them for another 14 days to complete their investigations.
They were among eight police officers arrested Tuesday over the escape, but it was not immediately known if the other three would also appear in court.
State prosecutor James Gachoka told the court that several accomplices remained at large, without giving further details.
The court is due to rule on the custody request on Thursday.
Escaped before breakfast
Police said they discovered the breakout when officers made a routine visit to the cells at around 5:00 am on Tuesday to serve the prisoners breakfast.
“On opening the cell door, they discovered that 13 prisoners had escaped by cutting the wire mesh in the basking bay,” a police report said, referring to a covered area in the station where detainees could get access to fresh air.
The 12 Eritreans had been arrested for being in Kenya illegally, police said, adding that four other detainees who did not escape were helping with the investigation.
The police station is located in the Gigiri district which is home to the regional headquarters of the United Nations and numerous embassies.
It is the second time in barely six months that a suspect in a high-profile case has escaped from custody.
Kenyan national Kevin Kangethe, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend in the United States last year and leaving her body in an airport car park, fled a police station in February before being caught about a week later.
Bodies found near police station
A number of butchered female bodies as well as body parts trussed up in plastic bags were found last month in a dump in an abandoned quarry in the Nairobi slum of Mukuru.
The grisly find shocked Kenyans, already reeling from the so-called Shakahola forest massacre after the discovery of more than 400 bodies in mass graves near the Indian Ocean coast.
A Kenyan cult leader is accused of inciting his followers to starve themselves to death in order to prepare for the end of the world and “meet Jesus”. He faces numerous charges including terrorism, murder and child cruelty along with dozens of co-defendants.
The discovery of the bodies in Mukuru threw a spotlight on police as they were found just 100 metres (yards) from a police station.
Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority, has said it was looking into whether there was any police involvement or a “failure to act to prevent” the killings.
Kenyan police are often accused by rights groups of carrying out unlawful killings or running hit squads, but few have faced justice.
