Johannesburg — A judge in Kenya's capital ordered the extradition on Thursday of Kevin Kangethe, 42, to the United States to face a trial for the alleged November 2023 murder of his girlfriend, 31-year-old Margaret Mbitu, whose body was found in an SUV at Boston's Logan Airport.
Kangethe had been on the run and the subject of a three-month international manhunt after Mbitu's family reported her missing. Her body was found two days after she disappeared, with stab wounds in his SUV in a parking garage at the airport. Police say he boarded a flight from Logan to Kenya.
He was tracked down two months after the November murder in Kenya and arrested. But just one week into his detention, Kangethe managed to slip out of a holding cell and escape from the prison in a mini-van.
Embarrassed prison officials launched a new manhunt and investigation, eventually arresting four police officers, two of the suspect's relatives and a lawyer whom they accused of assisting in the prison break.
A tip-off helped Kenyan police track his whereabouts and recapture him at a relative's Nairobi home.
Mbitu was a nurse in Halifax, south of Boston, who worked in group homes helping disabled people.
Prosecutors testified before Thursday's ruling that when Kangethe was arrested, he was found in possession of items belonging to Mbitu, including her driver's license, Bank of America debit card and a visa card.
Based on this link between the two people, they argued the judge must endorse a Massachusetts arrest warrant and that the case met the threshold for the extradition request for Kangethe to face a first degree murder charge in Massachusetts.
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