The jailbreak at Kakata Central Prison (KCP) on Sunday, September 20, 2026, did not just happen all of a sudden. It was preceded by too many early warnings and growing tensions.
A Verity News investigation gathered firsthand details, including credible reports and circumstances, from a top-level insider who have chosen not to remain silent about what led to September 20 massive jailbreak, where over 100 notorious criminals including drug, rape, murder, and armed robbery convicts and suspects, escaped. Our top-level firsthand source prefers anonymity.
To date, seventy-seven (77) notorious criminals still remain at large (on the run), according to the Liberia National Police.
How it started? An inmate’s reported death sparked tensions inside KCP
On Friday, September 18, 2026, something terrible happened at Kakata Central Prison. An inmate reportedly died in prison from suffocation amid severe overcrowding. The truth is that Kakata Central Prison is as overcrowded as Monrovia Central Prison, which often poses severe, life-threatening risks to the safety and wellbeing of inmates in custody.
What happened afterwards on Friday?
The death triggered panic, fear, and uneasiness among inmates. They began to resist and protest in demand for improved correctional conditions. During that time, there were also quarrels about a cell phone being smuggled in the prison cell. The jailbreak should have actually happened earlier than Sunday, because the inmates almost to overpower the handful of security guards who were on assignment at Kakata Central Prison when the incident happened on Friday.
Tensions flared. So, a backup was quickly requested to calm things down. The Liberia National Police (LNP) was fully briefed about what had happened, including the inmate’s death which generated serious tension (anger and protest) inside Kakata Central Prison. A backup team of heavily armed Police Support Unit (PSU) and Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) personnel were dispatched on the same Friday. They arrived at the correctional facility in Margibi County and calmed the situation.
The Negligence
That same Friday, all of them, the backup team (PSU and AFL), left the facility. The police did not officially announce that an inmate had died. To date, that information is still kept as a secret. Then came Sunday, September 20, 2026, the jailbreak day. The inmates requested that they needed sunbath and natural air. This is like a routine at almost every correctional facility in Liberia. When they were brought outside of the prison for sunbath and natural air, only two officers were on assignment at that time. It appeared that the inmates had already pre-planned to break jail largely due to what may have happened on Friday.
When the opportunity became clear that they could overpower the two officers who were on post, they did not hesitate to do so. They overpowered them and successfully open the main gate of the Kakata Central Prison in Liberia. That’s how over 100 notorious prisoners, including rapists, murderers, drug traffickers, armed robbers, etc., escaped.
Who accounts for this mass jailbreak?
This is not the first time for a jailbreak to have happened at Kakata Central Prison. Another jailbreak happened on September 8, 2024, and 47 notorious prisoners escaped. To date, no head, no tail. The Ministry of Justice only released a big press statement and said, “There was a breach in security system.” So, who accounts for this other “breach” again?
Even though 22 inmates have been recaptured and re-arrested, 77 of them are still on the run, according to police spokesman Sam Collins. Will there be any accountability this time around? This paper hopes so. A US$336 million Drug suspect, Michael Brown, also “mysteriously” disappeared from that same prison. To date, no one has been held accountable.
A question to also ponder over: Could a coordinated conspiracy and a compromised security system be behind the repeated jailbreaks at Kakata Central Prison?
This is what we know so far about the jailbreak at Kakata Central Prison in Margibi County.
