From: Dickens Wasonga
Police in Siaya county woke up to a rude shock when over 10 remand prisoners made a dramatic escape from Bondo and Ukwala police stations in the wee hours of Friday morning.
According to Bondo district police boss Patrick Mangoli, at least five suspects who were remanded at the police station and were due to appear before the local law courts to answer various charges that morning scaled a perimeter wall after braking the doors to the holding area in an incident that threw the police into confusion.
The OCPD said the five suspects reportedly broke lose after they allegedly cut the padlock used in locking the cells by a hark-saw before they made the daring escape at 4.00 am.
It is not clear how many police officers were at the sentry or at the report desk at the time of the incident.
It is also a puzzle just how the tool they used to brake the doors leading to the cells found its way into the holding area which is usually under guard throughout by the police.
Amongst those who escaped includes four hardcore criminals who were being held by the authorities to answer robbery with violence charges.The fifth was a suspected burglar.
We were not able to confirm how many suspects were being remanded at the cells by the time the incident took place. The police said they have launched a man hunt for the escapees but none had been rearrested by the time we went to press.
In Ukwala there was conflicting reports about the actual number of the suspects who fled from the police cells.
Independent sources claimed all remand prisoners who were being held at the station had escaped but according to the Ugenya DC Carolyne Onchoka, 11 suspected criminals went missing.
The DC however asked for more time to get the fine details of the police station escape incident that sent the local provincial security team into panic.
The daring escape at Ukwala police station reportedly took place in the morning at around 6.00 am and it is not clear how 11 suspects could successfully flee with the high number of police officers normally at work at any police station.
Efforts to have the Nyanza PPO Njue Njagi to comment on the matter was futile. His cell phone went on ringing unanswered. He was said to have rushed to Ukwala as unconfirmed reports indicated his deputy Larry Kieng was dispatched to Bondo where a similar escape was reported.