Teacher Albert Ojwang who mysteriously died in a police cell.
The High Court on Tuesday heard that forensic experts from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) recovered deleted CCTV footage from Nairobi’s Central Police Station showing events surrounding the death of blogger and activist Albert Ojwang while in police custody.
Ipoa crime scene investigator John Mutua testified that Ojwang was brought to the station on June 7 at about 9pm in good physical condition.
CCTV footage captured him walking unaided and making phone calls before he was seen being carried away hours later.
Mr Mutua told the court that the surveillance footage was recovered after investigators established that the station’s CCTV system had been deliberately interfered with following Ojwang’s death in custody.
Former Central Police Station commander Samson Tallam is charged alongside police officers James Mukhwana and Peter Kimani. Also charged with murder are former GSU officer John Ngige, Jim Ambao and Brian Njue.
The prosecution alleges that the accused officers not only participated in the killing but also attempted to conceal it by interfering with evidence.
The recovered footage showed Ojwang being “aggressively” taken to one of the cells by four people, including Mukhwana, Ngige and two unidentified men, at about 10.45pm. The men were wearing hooded jackets or caps that concealed their identities.
One of the unidentified men was captured arriving on a motorcycle before walking around the station while making phone calls.
Mr Mutua said he was deployed on June 9, 2025, after Ipoa received notification that Ojwang had died in police custody.
He led a team of investigators to the station to document the scene and secure evidence.
The witness guided the court through the station’s layout, identifying CCTV cameras installed at the main gate, report office, holding bay, search office, cells, corridors and the OCS’s office.
“I documented the scene as it was,” Mr Mutua told the court.
After confirming that the station was fitted with a CCTV surveillance system, investigators sought the officer responsible for maintaining it.
Mr Mutua said they were informed that a technician identified as D.A.N. had exclusive access to the system’s password.
The witness said investigators then examined the Digital Video Recorder (DVR), which stores CCTV footage.
“When we realised there was no signal on the screen, we checked the power supply to the DVR and confirmed that the power cables had been disconnected,” he testified.
Mr Mutua said playback analysis covering the previous seven days showed no recorded images, while the DVR logs indicated that the storage drives had been changed and formatted at about 7am on June 8, hours after Ojwang had been booked into the station.
Once investigators reconnected the power cable, the CCTV system resumed normal operation. He added that only one of the station’s 24 cameras was found to be faulty. Mr Mutua told the court that Ipoa forensic experts later recovered about 489 gigabytes of deleted footage from the DVR.
The recordings, which were played in court, captured activity inside the station on the night Ojwang was brought in.
The footage showed Tallam moving around the station, while several officers, including Mukhwana, Kimani, Samuel Nganga and Evelyne Kanyiri, were seen interacting at different locations before and after Ojwang’s arrival.
The court heard that Mukhwana was captured entering and leaving the OCS’s office several times, speaking with fellow officers before appearing to conduct a handover at the holding area, where suspects were called out one by one.
James Mukhwana, the main suspect in the murder of Albert Ojwang, arraigned at Milimani Law Court on June 13, 2025.
Mr Mutua testified that Ojwang arrived at the station in good physical condition and was later seen making phone calls.
He was subsequently escorted by two men to the report office, where they remained for about 10 minutes before being joined by Mukhwana.
The footage also showed Ojwang being handcuffed before being escorted deeper into the station.
At another point, Mukhwana was seen speaking with a Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officer, who handed him a mobile phone. Mr Mutua testified that Mukhwana appeared to speak to someone using the phone before returning it to the DCI officer a few minutes later.
The witness further told the court that Ipoa investigators recovered CCTV footage from Mbagathi Hospital capturing the moments when Ojwang was transferred there after being removed from Central Police Station.
The hearing continues before the High Court in Kibera.
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