Admitted to heal, killed in bed — The chilling double murder at KNH

Kennedy Kalombotole, the prime suspect in the KNH double murder, photographed after his arrest.

A dark shadow continues to loom over Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Kenya’s largest referral health facility, following the arrest of a man now linked to, not one, but two gruesome murders within the hospital’s walls.

Kennedy Kalombotole, a long-term patient admitted since December 2024, was on Thursday apprehended in connection with the chilling murder of 33-year-old Edward Maingi Ndegwa, a patient receiving treatment in Ward 7B.

The incident occurred in broad daylight on Wednesday, July 17, 2025, triggering renewed scrutiny over patient safety and security lapses in public hospitals.

Kenyatta National Hospital, in a statement signed by Dr. William Sigilai, confirmed the tragic death of a patient under unclear circumstances. The patient was found in a ward with blood-soaked beddings around 2:00pm, shortly after visiting hours and was declared dead.

The hospital has reported the incident to the DCI and other security agencies and pledged to provide updates. 

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” the statement concluded.

According to early reports from hospital staff, Edward had been in stable condition when last checked by a nurse at 11:30am. A relative who visited an hour later confirmed he was alert and responsive, leaving the premises around 1:30pm.

But by 2:00pm, a cleaner was stunned to find blood seeping from the patient’s neck and pooling beneath the hospital bed. A trail of bloodied slipper prints led from the bedside, across the corridor and into a nearby toilet, eventually pointing detectives toward a nearby room in the same ward.

It was in that side room, detectives say, that they found Kalombotole. Hidden in plain sight, the suspect had allegedly returned to his bed as though nothing had happened. But forensic evidence told another story.

Inside the room, police recovered a pair of blue slippers and a bedsheet stained with fresh blood. Outside, near the base of the building beneath the seventh-floor window, a knife wrapped in gloves was retrieved, believed to be the murder weapon.

As detectives dug deeper, an even more disturbing connection surfaced. Kalombotole had already been on the radar of homicide investigators as the prime suspect in an earlier murder, the brutal slaying of Gilbert Kinyua Muthoni, 40, who was found dead in Ward 7C on the night of February 6–7, 2025. 

Gilbert's death had shocked staff and patients alike, but until now, the case had remained unresolved.

At the time, Kalombotole had been admitted under psychiatric observation and although preliminary evidence pointed to his involvement, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) called for further investigations. That directive, however, had yet to bear fruit until Edward’s death provided the missing link.

Kalombotole, now considered a suspected serial killer, is in police custody and undergoing formal processing. Authorities confirm that a fresh case file has been submitted to the ODPP, with strengthened forensic support including lab analysis of the recovered knife, slippers, and bedsheet.

Questions are now being raised about how Kalombotole, already implicated in a previous homicide, remained housed among vulnerable patients.

For grieving families, however, no investigation can undo the horror. A place of healing has now become a scene of terror, not once, but twice. As the legal process unfolds, Kenyans are left to grapple with an uncomfortable truth: even within hospital walls, safety cannot be taken for granted.