Police in Molo, Nakuru County, have rearrested a prisoner serving a life sentence who escaped from custody at the Nakuru Level 5 hospital on Monday.

Stanley Cheruiyot, 29, was convicted of defilement and is serving a life sentence at the Nakuru G.K. Prison. He escaped from the hospital’s male orthopaedic ward where he was awaiting corrective arm surgery later this week.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said Cheruiyot was given away by residents of the Keepleft area of Molo, recaptured on Tuesday evening and taken back to prison.

“… Members of the public sighted a man who by no means looked like a police officer with a pair of handcuffs tucked at the waist, 3 o'clock position,” read a statement from the investigative agency.

Cheruiyot was carrying a backpack with a phone, a pair of inmates' uniforms and hospital records, detectives said.

Questions surround the inmate’s escape as he was reportedly handcuffed to the hospital bed.

Cheruiyot is said to have freed himself and escaped the hospital undetected through the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) bordering the hospital.

"While being processed for the operation Monday morning, the malefactor managed to master the cuffs tied to his hospital bed, vanishing into thin air to the bewilderment of his keepers," DCI said.

Police said they are probing how he “got his arm dislocated so bad to require an urgent operation,” adding that they suspect he "arm-twisted himself" to flee prison.

The inmate will be arraigned for the charge of escaping from lawful custody.