Vincent Kirui, an inmate at Bomet GK Prison, asked to use a toilet after sitting for the KCSE biology practical exam at St Michael Secondary School.
As the prison warders waited outside, he found his way out, jumped the perimeter wall and out of the school. For a moment, he vanished.
The officers thought Kirui had taken unusually long in the toilet and broke in. They found the toilet empty.
The warders and police manning the examination set a search operation in motion. They called for reinforcement to help search for the fugitive.
After nearly four hours of an intensive manhunt for the escapee in the nearby Chebiri village, the warders arrested Kirui.
Bomet subcounty police commander Musa Omari said the inmate was arrested following tips from members of the public. He said he had locked himself inside a house.
“He had been transferred to the school to sit for the examination practical because what was required for use in the particular paper was not possible to be carried to the prison. He escaped but officers managed to arrest him and took him back,” Omari said.
He did not say whether Kirui will be charged for the attempted escape.
“You know escaping from lawful custody or a prison is an offence but he is at the prison and we want him to complete the examination because that is his right.”
The 20-year-old candidate is currently serving a seven-year sentence at the Bomet GK prison for causing grievous harm to his girlfriend.
He was handed the sentence by a Bomet court in January this year.
St Michael’s secondary is some 300 meters away from the prison.
(edited by o. owino)
