Nairobi — Five Kenyan police officers appeared in court Wednesday, suspected of helping a man accused of murdering and dismembering dozens of women escape from a Nairobi jail cell. Police launched a manhunt Tuesday after alleged serial killer Collins Jumaisi and 12 Eritreans broke out of a police station in an upmarket area of the Kenyan capital.

Jumaisi, 33, was described by police as a “psychopathic serial killer with no respect for human life” when he arrested last month after the horrific discovery of a number of mutilated bodies in a rubbish dump in a slum area of the Kenyan capital.

He and the other detainees appeared to have escaped by cutting through a wire mesh roof at the station.

“Our preliminary investigations indicate that the escape was aided by insiders,” acting national police chief Gilbert Masengeli said Tuesday.

Five out of eight officers who were arrested over the escape appeared in a Nairobi court on Wednesday, with police seeking an order to detain them for another 14 days in order to complete their investigations.

Police said they discovered the breakout when officers made a routine visit to the cells at around 5:00 am on Tuesday to serve the prisoners breakfast.

“On opening the cell door, they discovered that 13 prisoners had escaped by cutting the wire mesh in the basking bay,” police said in a statement, referring to a covered courtyard area in the station where detainees could get access to fresh air.

The 12 Eritreans had been arrested for being in Kenya illegally, police said, adding that four other detainees who did not escape were helping with the investigation.

The police station is located in the Gigiri district which is home to the regional headquarters of the United Nations and numerous embassies.

Police said after Jumaisi’s arrest on July 15 that he had confessed to murdering 42 women over a two-year period from 2022, with his wife his first victim. 

Jumaisi claimed he had been molested and tortured, his lawyer told AFP last month.

It is the second time in barely six months that a suspect in a high-profile case has escaped from custody.

Kenyan national Kevin Kangethe, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend in the United States last year and leaving her body in an airport car park, fled a police station in February before being caught about a week later. a judge ordered him to be extradited back to the U.S. in early August.