Film enthusiasts would perhaps remember Escape from Alcatraz, a 1979 movie based on a true story of the breakout attempt by Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, and Frank Morris to flee from prison.
In the movie directed by Don Siegel and featuring Clint Eastwood, the trio used stolen spoons to chip through the wall around the air vents while using accordions they played during music classes to hide their escape scheme.
The fourth prisoner, Allen West did not make it as he was late to leave his cell at the agreed time.
Now, closer home, a similar script unfolded at the heavily guarded Kamiti Maximum Security Prison where three inmates on terrorism charges staged an escape in November 2021.
But the jailbreak was short-lived as Musharaf Abdalla, alias Shuku, Mohamed Ali Abikar and Joseph Juma Odhiambo were re-arrested four days later at a village of Mwingi, Kitui County, where they were plotting to sneak into Boni Forest.
Those who were meant to guard them on the night of escape denied being involved or sleeping on their job. They are Boniface Njoroge, Robert Kipkurui, Ronald Muendo, Onesmus Rono, John Muchui, Moses Kakai, Willy Wambua, Nicholas Otieno, Bernard Mokua, Sylvester Musyoka, Edwin Muhia, Joseph Nakwai and John Libere.
But Muhia, an Inspector, denied any wrongdoing. He told the court that he never saw anything unusual on the night they escaped. Sylvester Mukisyo took over from him in the morning.
According to the senior officer, all the 1,979 prisoners were locked inside when he checked in and out. Distancing himself from the prison-break, Muhia maintained that the CCTV footage produced in court was unclear, and the evidence was contradictory.
On his part, Constable Nakwai who was manning the compound outside the block, said he too never saw anything. He alleged that the area was dark and he had not been issued with a torch.
Terror convict Musharaf Abdalla Alias Shukri disembarking from police helicopter guarded by ATPU officers . [File,Standard].
Kakwai insisted that normally, in case of an escape, the alarm is raised signaling a total lockdown. However, on the night of November 14 and 15, all was quiet until he handed over. He insisted that the escapees singled out those who helped them to flee but they were not charged.
Inspector Musyoka, too, denied any wrongdoing. According to his testimony, he took over and everything was well until the escape was discovered. He testified that he went to the CCTV room and it emerged that the cameras were not properly focusing on the block.
He distanced himself from any blunder that may have occurred saying that despite the fact that he was in charge of the early shift, everyone should carry their cross. The mistake, he insisted, was not his.
Constable Kipkurui, told court that all the doors were locked properly adding that not even a cat can go through them. He asserted that he never saw anything abnormal, and that he did not neglect his duty.
Like his colleagues, Muendo distanced himself from any role in the escape. He said he handed over to the next team when everything was okay. He said there was a bias as some of the officers who were with them on the night had not been charged.
The convicts escape drama is chronicled in testimonies by different witnesses who appeared before a Kahawa Law Court.
Chief Inspector Meshack Kagera was among those who represented the State. He told the court that between 11pm and 12.30pm, he was informed by the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that terror suspects had escaped from Kamiti.
Kagera said that when he arrived at Kamiti, he me Gerald Mutembei, the officer in charge, who explained what had transpired.
According to the detective, Mutembei told him that a security officer by the name Lekulal had told him that other officers who had gone to check on the generator discovered a rope hanging on the prison's wall. The rope was adjacent to condemned Block A, cell six where it was discovered Abdalla, Ali and Juma were missing.
Kagera demonstrated to court how the trio staged the escape by first folding their mattresses to create the expression that they were asleep, dug a hole, then waited for the opportune moment.
He told the court that following a search, they found two nails, one which was sharpened inside the cells, and a chisel.
Just like in Alcatraz, one prisoner did not escape at Kamiti. Abdimajid Yassin, was left in cell six.
Kagera disclosed that upon interrogating him, Yassin told them that he did not know what had transpired. He claimed that he thought there was transfer of prisoners, as when he woke up, he was all alone.
Yassin, alias Ali Hussein, alias Browny, pleaded guilty on September 20, 2012, and was sentenced to 59 years. He was arrested alongside one Alex Shikanda and Abdalla following a swoop that led to the discovery of a cache of weapons assembled to carry out a terrorist attack.
Shikanda and Abdalla were sentenced to 22 years in prison by the magistrate's court. They were then acquitted on appeal by the High Court, but the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed Justice Grace Nzioka's verdict.
On the night of September 14, 2012, police arrested two men in Nairobi's Eastleigh where explosives, guns, and ammunition were recovered.
Odhiambo was in for 15 years after he was arrested along the Kenya-Somalia border while attempting to cross over to Somalia while Ali was convicted for his role in the 2015 Garissa University attack.
According Kagera, the transfer of Yassin to Cell Six was meant to conceal the escape.
"The transfer was to make sure that when a call up is done in the morning, he would respond to the officer on behalf of the rest of inmates. Whenever a call up was made, one of the prisoners would just respond "tuko", and that had been the routine," explained the DCI officer.
According to Kagera, the trio were arrested while on transit in Kitui. He said he did not know where they were headed.
In his defence, Warden Muchui testified that he had worked at Kamiti for less than four months when the escape happened. He had been transferred there from Kibos Prison and was manning the compound that night with Nakwai.
Nakwai worked from 7pm while Muchui rested and took over at around 1am until 7am. He said nothing unusual happened during his watch.
He testified that the guard commander came in for a check-up at around 3:40am and found that everything was okay before he left his post at around 7am for home.
He said that he was summoned at around noon and was arrested alongside his colleagues and were all taken to the Muthaiga Police Station.
He argued that the state had not presented any evidence or witness to show that he aided the three men to escape.
Muchui questioned why none of the officers from the patrol and dog units who were on duty that night were not charged.
Kipkurui, in his defence, said he was on general duties with Mokua and on that night they were issued with one gun and took over Watch Tower 7.
He said that they could not see where the rope was since the lights were not working and the lights from Tower 6 did not reach where they were.
At the time when he was working at Tower 7, he claimed it did not have a CCTV camera but when the court went for a site visit, they found a camera adding that the scene was interfered with.
According to Kipkurui, he was not involved in taking the roll-call of the inmates and never interacted with them as a general duty guard.
He said that when he left work at around 7am, he passed by where the escape rope was allegedly found and he did not see it.
Headcount
Mokua said he was the one with the gun, a G3 rifle and 20 rounds of ammunition and that he had no connection with the escapees. At the watch tower, he testified, they did not have a torch or binoculars.
Libere had worked at Kamiti since April 2021. After reporting for work on November 15, he took over from the night team but did not conduct a headcount only to be discovered later there had been an escape.
According to Libere, on the duty roster it was indicated that he was to man condemned block A but he was assigned elsewhere by his boss and the roster was not amended to reflect the change.
While denying any role in the escape, Kakai said he had resumed duty on November 10 after being off duty following an operation.
Wambua who had worked with the prisons department for over 30 years, testified that when the incident occurred, he had taken a prisoner to Kajiado.
He said he took the trip together with four other officers and after attending court, they brought the prisoner back. When he came back he was called by his senior and that is when he was arrested and booked.
Wambua said he moved Yassin to another cell after he was asked to do so by his senior. This was after Yassin reported he had problems with a fellow inmate.
Otieno, in his testimony, said he took over CCTV duties on November 14 and was the only one manning the two monitors covering some 47 cameras. He did not witness the escape and only heard that it had happened nine hours after he left work.
Inspector Frankline Muturi said his work was to plan work for wardens at Kamiti, but on the day of escape he was off duty.
When he came to work the following day, he testified that he deployed officers at around 8am.
The prison's generator located outside condemned Block A was faulty and he called two wardens, Inspector Henry Muchira and sergeant Isaac Nyabuto, to attend to it at around 9:47am. "I noticed a twisted blanket, it was along the wall," he said.
The three officers then called the security officer to inform him the same and since he was attending to other duties he told them to contact his deputy.
He testified that the nearest security is Tower 7 and the officer manning it could see the rope if they were keen.
"I don't know if other people had been at the scene where I saw the string."
Inspector Muchira said he is mechanic by profession and on that day, he had accompanied Muturi and Nyabuto to repair the generator when they notice the rope on intertwined blankets.
During cross examination, he said that during shift change, the wardens who were manning the prison on the night November 14 and the early hours of November 15 had not reported any issues.
He says that this meant that everyone in the prison had been counted.
Muchira further testified that the responsibility to guard inmates belongs to all officers including those from the dog unit, patrol parking and special guard but none had been charged. Chief Inspector Pamela Cherubet was in charge of the CCTV at the facility and her work involved deploying and supervising officers on surveillance duty. She said that from the occurrence book there was no incident report of the escape.
She said that the entire prison is covered by 47 CCTV cameras but the one covering condemned Block A was "faulty".
"The camera has challenges, it rotates but is not fixed. You cannot get play back, if we had fixed the camera we could play back," she told court.
She testified that the camera on that night was focused on the visitor's bay and not where the inmates had been locked up.
Cherubet denied that there was an instruction not to turn the cameras adding that if the officer who was manning the control room had turned the camera, they could have noticed the rope hanging on the wall.
Julius Lekulal testified that after the authorities were notified of the jailbreak, they conducted a headcount and found that three prisoners were missing. In their cell they found a hole that had been dug.
Engineer John Waweru from the Public Works department said the prison wall was of good quality. From his assessment, the escapees scene may have been du
However, while it is not known how long it took the three men to break out, they did it undetected.