The death of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang while in police custody was planned before officers embarked on an elaborate cover-up by destroying crucial CCTV evidence, the prosecution has told the High Court.
Opening the murder trial before the High Court in Kibera, Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga said the evidence would show that Ojwang's death was not an accident, self-harm or a medical emergency, as initially reported by police.
Former Central Police Station commander Samson Tallam is charged with Ojwang's murder alongside police officers James Mukhwana and Peter Kimani. Also charged are civilians John Ngige Gitau, Jim Ambao and Brian Njue, who were detained in the same police cell as Ojwang.
From left: Former Central police station OCS Samson Talaam, James Mukhwana, Peter Kimani, John Ngige Gitau, Gin Ammitou Abwau and Brian Mwaniki at the Kibera law courts on July 20, 2026, during the murder trial of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang'. They were charged with his murder last year.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada| Nation Media Group
"The prosecution will demonstrate that this was a case of abuse of power and authority by police officers who had a constitutional duty to protect his life and other members of the public," Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Gikui Gichuhi told the court.
"The evidence will show that the death was caused by assault, which was fatal and was orchestrated and planned. It will show that the victim was helpless in the cell with no assistance," she said.
The prosecution also outlined deliberate efforts by police officers to interfere with evidence by deleting CCTV footage captured at the station in the hours surrounding Ojwang's death.
Albert Ojwang: CCTV footage shows 2 mystery men at central police station
The allegations of interference featured prominently in the testimony of three prosecution witnesses, including two CCTV technicians and a police officer attached to Central Police Station.
One of the technicians, Aloni Okwako, who helped install the station's surveillance system in 2024, testified that he was called to the station on June 9 by his employer to attend to the CCTV system after Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) investigators had arrived.
Albert Ojwang murder trial: CCTV expert says police station footage was erased
He said he found IPOA officers outside the OCS's office and, after being given the system password, inspected the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). According to the witness, the DVR had already been switched off, its power supply disconnected and the hard drives removed. He found that recordings for June 6 and June 7 had been deleted.
Okwako told the court that formatting the DVR could only have been done deliberately by someone with access to the system. Days later, he and his employer were arrested and questioned about the destruction of the footage.
Under cross-examination, he maintained that the DVR presented in court was the same 38-channel recorder his company had installed at the station, and insisted that deleting the recordings required deliberate formatting by someone.
A second protected witness, identified only as D.A.N. and also a CCTV technician who installed the surveillance system, gave a more detailed account of what transpired a day earlier.
D. A.N., a man who says he was ordered to delete footage by ex-OCS Samson Talaam, testifies from a witness protection box on July 20, 2026.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
He testified that on June 8 he was summoned to the OCS's office by his supervisor, identified only as A.A., where he found Tallam waiting. The OCS allegedly instructed him to retrieve CCTV footage for June 6 and June 7. When he informed them that footage could not be selectively deleted unless the hard drive was formatted, he said Tallam instructed him to erase everything.
"I was told to format it," the witness testified.
Using a default password, he accessed the storage menu and formatted the hard drives, deleting all recordings. He said Tallam paid him Sh3,000 personally, in cash, for the work.
The following morning, the technician told the court, he was again called and instructed to return to the station with replacement hard drives. He took two hard drives to the station and was paid Sh20,000 before leaving. He was eventually arrested on June 13 and recorded a statement with investigators.
Police officer: I heard Tallam order deletion
The prosecution also called a police records officer who worked directly under Tallam at Central Police Station.
The officer, identified only as AAA, testified that on the morning after Ojwang's death, she went to the OCS's office to collect equipment that had been charging there and found Tallam discussing reports that a suspect had died in custody. She noticed a file on the desk containing a report describing the incident as a suicide, after the detainee allegedly hit his head against the wall.
Concerned by the circumstances, she suggested the CCTV footage be reviewed. The OCS went out to brief some officers, and she, together with Deputy OCS Inspector Nganga, viewed the recordings.
She told the court the footage showed an officer she identified as Kimani speaking to two people near the entrance to the police cells. Shortly thereafter, another person is seen running toward the last cell. The three, she said, were later seen carrying what appeared to be a heavy object toward the last cell.
According to the witness, Tallam identified one of the individuals in the footage as Mukhwana before instructing her to call the CCTV technician. When the technician arrived, she said, Tallam issued the order that would become central to the prosecution's case.
"He instructed, 'Hii camera inatuletea shida, futa kila kitu' (This camera is giving us trouble. Delete everything)," AAA testified.
James Mukhwana, the main suspect in the murder of Albert Ojwang, arraigned at Milimani Law Court on June 13, 2025.
Photo credit: File | Nation
The prosecution earlier said the deletion of the recordings formed part of a wider effort to conceal what had happened inside the station after Ojwang was assaulted.
DIG Lagat social media post
Ojwang was arrested at his home in Kakoth, Homa Bay County, on June 7, 2025, by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, following a complaint over a social media post allegedly linked to Deputy Inspector-General of Police Eliud Langat. He was transported to Nairobi and booked at Central Police Station, where he died hours later.
His death sparked nationwide protests and public outrage, prompting Langat to step aside to facilitate investigations.
Investigators say Ojwang was found unconscious in his cell in the early hours of June 8 and was pronounced dead at Mbagathi Hospital. However, a postmortem conducted on June 10 found he had sustained severe head injuries, neck compression and multiple soft-tissue injuries across his body. Pathologists concluded the injuries were externally inflicted and consistent with assault rather than self-harm.
The autopsy further established that the injuries were sustained over a period of time, contradicting the initial police account that Ojwang fatally injured himself by repeatedly hitting his head against a cell wall.
The prosecution says the evidence will show that all six accused participated in the events that led to Ojwang's death, before attempts were made to destroy CCTV evidence and conceal the circumstances surrounding the killing.
