Intel briefs and call data helped police to arrest murder suspect

Murder suspect Kelvin Kinyanjui Kang’ethe at a Milimani Law Court on Wednesday, February 14, 2024, where the prosecution applied to detain him at Industrial area remand prison after being re-arrested. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

Fresh details have emerged on the seven-day police hunt for fugitive murder suspect Kevin Kang’ethe who was arrested on Tuesday night in Ngong. 

Detectives from the Nairobi area Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau together with officers from the Operation Support Unit (OSU) raided a house in Ololua on Tuesday at 11.45pm and arrested Kang’ethe. 

Also arrested in the same house were Kang’ethe's cousin and his wife who were hosting him for the night. 

Kang’ethe, according to the investigators, had arrived at the Ngong house the same night from a hotel room in Ngong where he was hiding. 

When the police arrived at the rented flats, Kang’ethe and the relatives were still in the living room where they were having drinks. 

The arrest of the fugitive came a day after detectives picked up his brother, Brian Kang’ethe, who is now being investigated for aiding a prisoner to escape. 

The Standard has now established that the arrest of Kang’ethe, which initially appeared a daunting task, came after DCI investigators managed to follow communication between Keng’ethe and his relatives. 

Intelligence briefs and the call data helped the police nab the wanted man. 

Further, the investigators received crucial information from Keng’ethe's relatives who had been picked up by investigators after mobile phone data revealed constant communication with the wanted man. 

On interrogation, Kang’ethe told the investigators that he had been living in rented apartments in different parts of the city before he decided to relocate to the cousin’s house where he was nabbed. 

Investigators said Kang’ethe used a taxi to travel from his rented apartment in Ngong to the house where he was arrested. 

On Monday, detectives arrested two more suspects, among them the brother, as the search intensified. 

Kevin Kang'ethe in handcuffs after arrest by DCI detectives. [Courtesy: DCI]

A woman who has also been in communication with Kang'ethe's brother was also arrested by the police at a house in Westland’s last Monday. 

Brian was arrested at his house in Ngong on Monday evening and brought to Nairobi for interrogation. 

The arrest of the two suspects brings to 10 the number of suspects who have so far been arrested and questioned by the police over the disappearance of Kangethe from police custody. 

Last week, police picked up four people including a cousin and close associate of the missing man. 

They were picked up by detectives from the Nairobi area Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau last Friday night.

Kang’ethe is wanted in America over the murder of his girlfriend Margaret Mbitu. 

He escaped from Muthaiga Police Station last Wednesday in mysterious circumstances. 

He had been remanded by a Nairobi court that allowed the police time to apply for his extradition to the US where he was to face charges of murder. 

Kang’ethe is accused of killing his girlfriend Margaret Mbitu and later dumping her body in a car at an airport in Boston, US, on October 31 last year. 

Last Wednesday, police chiefs in Nairobi woke up to the sad reality of Kangethe's escape from police cells moments after allowing him to meet a man who had visited claiming he was his lawyer. 

So astounding was the escape that Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei personally visited Muthaiga Police Station where he described it as a shameful incident for the police.