US murder fugitive escapes in Nairobi

A man who fled the US after allegedly killing his girlfriend has mysteriously escaped police custody in Kenya. Kelvin Kangethe was arrested last week while leaving a club in Nairobi after a lengthy manhunt by Kenyan and US authorities. BBC News reports that a court had allowed police to hold him for 30 days awaiting his extradition. Authorities say that after Kangethe murdered his girlfriend, Margaret Mbitu, in October, he abandoned her body in a car at the Boston Logan Airport. He then boarded a flight to Kenya, his country of origin. Nairobi police commander Adamson Bungei said Kangethe managed to walk out of the Nairobi police station where he was being detained on Wednesday evening and boarded a public transport vehicle. Four police officers who were on duty and a lawyer who had met Kangethe before he escaped have been arrested. On Friday, a Kenyan court was due to rule whether the suspect should be tried in Kenya or be extradited to face first-degree murder charges in the US, after he claimed that he had renounced his US citizenship last year.