This archive report was first published on 19 November 2019.
On November 19, 2019, a family was left reeling after a man who had pleaded guilty to murdering their kin disappeared from a police cell in Nakuru. Samson Liavola, 24, had pleaded guilty to charges of robbery with violence and causing the death of Martin Mathea Kiumbuku between November 6 and 7, 2018.
Liavola was being held at Nakuru Central Police Station pending the results of a medical test and sentencing. However, he escaped from the police cell on February 2, 2019, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
The family of Kiumbuku has written to the Inspector General of Police and the Director of Criminal Investigations, expressing their concerns over the police's laxity in re-arresting the suspect. In a letter dated November 11, the family questioned the police's efforts in recapturing the fugitive.
“We write to raise concerns over the seemingly snail-paced efforts in recapturing the fugitive. More disconcerting is the fact the family has been left in the dark and have no idea whether the police are expending any efforts towards apprehending the fugitive,” reads the letter.
Court documents show that Liavola admitted to robbing Mathea of various items, including a TV set worth Sh30,000, electric kettle worth Sh4,000, and a gas cylinder worth Sh3,800.
The then Rift Valley Regional police commander Francis Munyambu said that the two officers who were manning the cell and the report office when Liavola went missing were arrested. Munyambu stated that the officers claimed Liavola disappeared after they allowed him to visit the toilet.
The father of the victim, Vincent Mathea, expressed his shock and devastation at the news of his son's killer's disappearance. “I received the news of the death of my son with shock. Arrest and charging of the suspect was a reprieve but his disappearance from police cells has surprised us,” he said.
