Teen arrested in bank escapes from police cells

KCB branch in Nyamira where the alleged teenage robber was busted on December 10, 2023. [Stanley Ongwae, Standard]

A teenager who was arrested as he attempted to steal in a bank has escaped from police cells.

The Form Three student at a local secondary school was being held at Nyamira Police Station cells as investigations continued, when he made the daring escape.

Nyamira South sub-County Police Commander Isaac Sang' said the boy was among several other prisoners who were in the expansive cells from where he managed to escape by breaking the ceiling and roof.

He said the teenager first scaled the wall in the cell that is about five metres high before he tore into the ceiling and eventually jumped off from the roof.

According to Sang', inmates reported the escape but by the time it was being reported, the boy was already on the rooftop.

"The police officer on duty moved swiftly to arrest the prisoner but by the time he was getting out of the building, already the suspect had made it to the roof and was jumping down," Sang' said.

It could not be immediately established how the young man managed to jump from the rooftop which is about 10 metres high without suffering injuries.

The suspect also jumped from a rump overlooking a chain-link fence that is about three metres high onto a tarmac bypass behind the police station. The police station compound is on a raised sloped ground bordering the road.

The incident occurred at around 6am when routine cleaning of cells and a change of shift of police officers was happening.

The suspect is said to have outrun the police who could not scale the same heights he jumped over.

Sang', however, said police officers and DCI detectives were in hot pursuit of the suspect.