Warders held as police search for clues to jail break

Eleven warders have been arrested in connection with the escape of eight death row inmates at Naivasha Maximum Security Prison.

Commissioner of prisons Gilbert Omondi said the warders were on duty on Saturday night, when the jail break happened.

He also said police would trace the movement of convicts around the facility before they scaled a 20-foot perimeter wall to freedom.

Mr Omondi said the escapees “used blankets to make strong ropes with which they scaled the wall to gain freedom.”

The eight had been convicted to hang for various capital offences between 2001 and 2007.

Police identified the fugitives as George Kamari Thuo, Patrick Kathere Mwangi and Antony Mwangi from Nyeri District. 

Others are Oganyi Mundo Juma and Kennedy Ochieng alias Kadoogi from Kisumu, Peter Kimani from Bahati in Nakuru, Augustine Lianda from Shinyalu in Kakamega, and Antony Njagi Njue from Embu.

Preliminary investigations

The prison is one of the five maximum security facilities in the country. The others are Kamiti, in Nairobi, Shimo la Tewa in Mombasa, Kodiaga in Kisumu and King’ong’o in Nyeri.

Preliminary investigations showed the convicts may have colluded with guards to execute the escape. The warders are being held at Naivasha police station.

Those arrested are four warders who were manning the watchtowers, six at Block B, which holds condemned prisoners and the other who was in charge of the security team. 

A convict who was in the same cell with the escapees is also being questioned by the police. He was found asleep, apparently drugged before his cell mates escaped.

Rift Valley Province police chief Everret Wasige said a massive manhunt had been launched and described the fugitives as “dangerous criminals on the loose.”

Yesterday, the police combed Gatamaiyu and Karate forests in the outskirts of Naivasha Town for the escapees, following reports that one of them had been spotted there. 

The escapees were jailed on various dates between 2001 and 2007. Some had served more than six years while others had only been in for a few months before the escape. 

Initially, they had been incarcerated at different prisons across the country before being transferred to Naivasha.

Similar break

The officer-in-charge of the prison, Mr Duncan Ogore, declined to address journalists. He was transferred from Kamiti prison.

Mr Wasige and the director of prisons investigations, Mr David Bwana, held a long meeting yesterday to plan the capture of the fugitives.

Prior to the escape the convicts are said to have cut a window grill before gaining entry to the bathroom where they cut another grill. 

They then proceeded to the volleyball pitch and removed two posts which they used as staircase. 

“They tied together several pieces of old blankets, hooked in open crack in the wall before scaling the perimeter fence,” said the source. 

They all successfully managed to scale the 20-foot wall and dashed to freedom even as armed guards kept vigil.

There are four watchtowers in the prision manned round the clock by armed guards. It is also lit by powerful floodlights.

Perimeter wire fence

Many more guards conduct foot patrols around the facility, day and night. In case of a jail break, an escapee has to scale two walls and a perimeter wire fence.

The Nation visited the prison and witnessed run down communication facilities. 

Telephone extensions to various departmental offices have not worked in many years.

An officer manning the gate, for instance, has to run over a kilometre to reach the officer-in-charge’s office to deliver a message because the telephone extension does not work. 

Efforts by reporters to reach Mr Ogore yesterday were unsuccessful for the better part of the day as his telephone went unanswered.