Man charged in Mass. woman’s death rearrested in Kenya after escaping custody

A man wanted in Massachusetts to face murder charges was has been rearrested a week after he dramatically escaped from police custody, Kenyan police said Wednesday.

Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kangethe escaped while awaiting extradition on a Massachusetts warrant alleging he killed his girlfriend and left her body in a car at a Boston airport. Last week he slipped out of a police station and jumped into a privately owned minivan.

Kevin Kangethe, accused of fatally stabbing Maggie Mbitu before leaving her in a vehicle parked at Logan Airport and fleeing to Kenya, has escaped after his arrest there.

Kangethe was arrested in Embulbul, Kajiado County on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital city on Tuesday evening as he sought refuge at one of his relatives’ homes, Nairobi police boss Adamson Bungei said.

“We have rearrested him and we thank all that helped in this,” he said.

In a country where corruption endemic and the police force has been ranked for decades the most corrupt institution in the country, Kangethe’s escape raised suspicion the police officers on duty that day may have been bribed to allow his escape.

The four officers who were on duty at the report office that day have been suspended awaiting disciplinary action and may face prosecution.

Kevin Kangethe, 40, escaped from the Nairobi Police Department and into a privately owned minivan, which is the main source of transportation in Kenya, authorities said Thursday. 

The officer’s report seen by the Associated Press said that on the day Kangethe escaped, a man named John Maina Ndegwa introduced himself to the officers as Kangethe’s lawyer and said he wanted to speak with his client.

“The officers agreed to his request and removed the prisoner from the cells and took him to (an) office … leaving them there. After a short while the prisoner escaped by running away and left the (lawyer) behind,” the report said.

Officers pursued Kangethe but did not catch him, the police report said, adding that Ndegwa was arrested.

Kangethe, 40, had been detained pending a ruling on whether he should be extradited to face a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Margaret Mbitu on Oct. 31, 2023.

Massachusetts State Police said in early November that Kangethe had left her body in a car at Logan International Airport and boarded a flight to Kenya. Massachusetts officials said they were working with Kenyan authorities to locate him, and he was arrested in a nightclub on Jan. 30 after being on the run for three months.

A police official told the AP that Kangethe said he had renounced his U.S. citizenship. The police official, who insisted on anonymity in order speak freely about an ongoing investigation, said if Kangethe were an American citizen he would have been repatriated without a court process.

The court approved a police application for him to be detained for 30 days while the extradition issue was heard.

Mbitu, a health care aide in Halifax, was last seen leaving work Oct. 30 and reported missing by her family. The preliminary investigation showed Mbitu had left her workplace and traveled with Kangethe to Lowell, where he lived, the prosecution said.