It is a hunt that has Kenya on the edge of its seat. For eight days now, police officer Caroline Kangogo has been sought by her colleagues. She is suspected of having shot and killed two men on July 5 and 6. The 34-year-old has been on the run ever since. The Kenyan authorities have mobilized considerable human resources, but Caroline Kangogo remains unaccounted for to this day.
The hunt began on Monday July 5, when a police officer, John Ogweno, was found dead in his car. He had spent the previous evening with his colleague Caroline Kangogo.
Then, on Tuesday, the body of Peter Ndwiga was discovered in a hotel room, more than 200 km from the first murder. He had joined Caroline Kangogo, his lover, there the day before. If the security cameras saw them arrive together, Kangogo was filmed leaving the place, alone, around midnight.
Since then, no trace of the suspect. Elite police and military forces have been deployed to find her. But her 13 years of experience as a policewoman give her an advantage according to the investigators: she knows how to cover her tracks. In the meantime, rumors are flying. She would have been seen in Nairobi on Wednesday, then further north on Thursday. And in the west of the country on Friday.
The director of criminal investigations called on Kenyans to be on the alert, describing the suspect as “armed and dangerous”.
According to the national media, she is a sniper, an information that has spread panic. Friday morning, in a market in western Kenya, a businessman shot a woman after mistaking her for the fugitive.