FBI Boston’s Violent Crimes Task Force extradites Massachusetts man accused of murdering 31-year-old girlfriend

The Boston Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office announce the successful extradition from Nairobi, Kenya of Kevin Kangethe, who fled the country to avoid prosecution for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, 31-year-old Margaret Mbitu of Whitman.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs worked with Kenyan authorities including Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of Kenya to secure Kangethe’s arrest and extradition with the assistance of the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Nairobi, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service’s Boston Field Office and Regional Security office – Nairobi, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

FBI Special Agents, along with a Massachusetts State Trooper assigned to FBI Boston’s Violent Crimes Task Force, escorted Kangethe from Nairobi to Logan International Airport on a flight that arrived Saturday evening. The FBI leveraged its international resources to bring him back to Massachusetts and has transferred custody of Kangethe to the Massachusetts State Police. He is scheduled to appear in Suffolk Superior Court sometime on Tuesday.

Following an investigation by the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, an arrest warrant was issued for Kangethe out of Chelsea District Court on November 2, 2023, charging him with murder.

The following day, investigators learned that Kangethe fled the United States on October 31, 2023, after purchasing a one-way airline ticket to Nairobi, Kenya. The FBI obtained a federal arrest warrant issued by the United States District Court in Massachusetts on November 3, 2023, charging Kangethe with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Kenyan authorities apprehended Kangethe on January 29, 2024, at the request of the United States. Kangethe escaped custody a few days later before Kenyan authorities located and re-arrested him. Kangethe remained in custody in Nairobi pending his extradition this week.

The body of Mbitu was located in a vehicle in the Central Parking garage at Logan Airport. She had been reported missing by her family and was the subject of a missing person investigation.