Mystery As Prisoner Escapes From Thika Hospital Despite Being Chained And On Police Watch.

A state prison inmate escaped custody while being treated at Thika Level 5 Hospital in Kiambu County despite being on police watch and chained.

Paul Wainaina (33), who was facing defilement charges disappeared from the hospital on Saturday night even though he had been handcuffed onto the bed.

According Thika Level 5 Hospital Nursing Officer Ruth Karani the suspect was admitted in the facility on April 28^th, 2016 and was being treated for convulsive disorder. She said that she received information about a missing patient when she reported for duty Sunday morning.

“I reported to work this morning at 7:30am and the team on night duty informed me that a prisoner who was being guarded by prison warders was missing from his bed,” she said.

According to the hospital, their security personnel never noticed anything out of the ordinary between 9pm and midnight, the time Wainaina is alleged to have escaped. An intensive search in the area failed to find a man.

“Our nurses had administered him with some drugs at around 9pm. At that time, they did not notice anything unusual. Upon realising that the prisoner was not in his bed, the prison officers immediately sent resources to lock down the area and conducted an extensive search but they did not trace him," said Ms Karani.

Karani added that the hospital staff filled an abscondee form immediately and sent an alert to the police and prison authorities.

According to one patient at the hospital who had last communicated with Wainana, the inmate had schemed for the jailbreak well in advance while still in the hospital.

“A few days ago, he had asked me to join him in the planned escape but I refused and told him there was no wayI could assist him to escape his defilement charges. I slept after taking the last dose of the day at 9pm only to later wake up at midnight to find Wainaina missing from his bed,” said the patient.

His handcuffs were left still strapped onto his hospital bed.

Wainaina still remains on the run since by the time we went to press, the prison authorities had not yet found him.