Man accused of killing girlfriend in Massachusetts escapes from police custody in Kenya
BOSTON - Kevin Kangethe, the man accused of the brutal murder of Maggie Mbitu in Massachusetts last year, has escaped from police in Kenya.
Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei said a man claiming to be Kangethe's lawyer came to the police station where Kangethe was being held Wednesday afternoon and told officers 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 Associated Press reported, quoting a police report in Nairobi. Kangethe then left in a privately owned minivan.
Mbitu, 31, of Whitman, was found stabbed to death in a car at a garage at Logan Airport on November 2. She had been reported missing by her family three days earlier.
Investigators said Kangethe, 40, of Lowell, killed her and left Boston on a flight to Kenya. After three months on the run, he was arrested at a nightclub in Kenya on January 30.
"We have been informed by federal officials that Kevin Kangethe has escaped from police custody in Kenya. It is our hope that Kenyan law enforcement will do their utmost to recapture Kangethe so that we can continue seeking justice for Margaret Mbitu and her family," Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement Thursday.
"We are deeply troubled and disappointed by the news of the escape from custody of Kevin Kangethe, the sole suspect in the murder of Maggie, our beloved daughter, sister, cousin, niece, and friend. Justice has once again been delayed. Maggie's family and friends have been robbed of another chance to get justice sooner [for] Maggie," said a spokesperson for Mbitu's family.
"We feel betrayed and once again are thrown into disarray and our hearts ache the loss of Maggie. Kevin and his accomplices are calculated criminals. Kevin can run but he cannot hide and we trust that the long arm of the law will reach him whenever he is and that justice will prevail. We are thankful for family, the community, the media, the Kenyan law enforcement, the DA, and those working tirelessly behind the scenes to get us the justice our dear Maggie deserves."
"We have arrested the officers who were on duty when he escaped to explain how it happened. It is just embarrassing to us," Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei told the AP.
Mbitu was a nurse who worked in group homes helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Kangethe is facing a first-degree murder charge.
