Police have launched a serious manhunt for a remandee who escaped from police custody on Wednesday morning at the Industrial Area Police station.

The sly remandee seized a moment and varnished into the thin air when an officer manning him turned to attend to other duties after being escorted outside the cell to take a bath at around 5 am, leaving his clothes behind.

The escaped remandee identified as 19-year-old Erickson Khata had been arrested and arraigned at the Makadara Law Courts on July 9, 2022, for the offence of defilement.

According to the police report, Erickson requested to be allowed to take a bath and an officer manning the report office escorted him to fetch water and take his bath.

No sooner had the officer given the prisoner some privacy than the 19-year-old escaped in his innerwear without his clothes.


The prolonged silence void of the sound of water splashing drew the officer’s attention, prompting him to find out what had happened.

Alas! the sight of a half-empty basin of lathered water, a piece of soap and Erickson’s clothes greeted him and the lad was nowhere in sight.’

His escape has left the officers at the station in bewilderment, wondering how the young man escaped.

Erickson had been remanded at the Nairobi remand allocation maximum security prison, when he complained he was a minor and taken back to court where an order was issued for assessment of his age. 

On July 26, he was escorted to Mbagathi Hospital where the relevant tests were conducted and his apparent age was found to be 19 years.

The matter was set to be mentioned on Wednesday last week when he mysteriously varnished.