Six days before the deadly fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy that claimed the lives of 21 boys, all 11 CCTV cameras at the school were fully functional and in good condition, a court heard on Monday.
Testifying before Nyeri Senior Resident Magistrate Mary Gituma, CCTV expert James Githinji said he had serviced the system on August 30, 2024.
Mr Githinji, a surveillance systems specialist with Gian Security Systems, explained that the work involved replacing the digital video recorder (recording machine), hard disk, five cameras, and the cameras’ power supply.
Pictures of the 21 children who died in the dormitory fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy.
Photo credit: Pool
“When I arrived, I found that the entire CCTV system was not working. The DVR was faulty, and five cameras were too old, producing poor-quality footage,” he told the court.
During the maintenance, he replaced the five cameras by installing one facing the school gate, another towards the entrance of both girls’ and boys’ dormitories, a third one partly facing the school kitchen and the entrance of the dormitories.
He placed the fourth camera facing the assembly grounds and the fifth one inside the Director’s office.
“I installed two cameras facing the entrances of the dormitories because the area was too large to be covered effectively by a single camera,” he said, adding that power was sourced from the main office.
According to Mr Githinji, the system had the capacity to support up to 16 cameras, and there had been plans to install five additional units at a later date.
He said all was well until the early hours of September 5, 2024, when he received a call at about 1.00am from a customer living in Endarasha, informing him that the school was on fire. He arrived at around 4.00 am, shortly after the blaze had been extinguished.
However, he was unable to access the CCTV system immediately because power had been cut to ease the firefighting efforts.
“The CCTV system only operates when there is power. When I arrived, I conducted a spot check on the five cameras I had replaced and found them intact, except one. The camera facing the assembly grounds had been tilted downward, and its cable cut,” he said.
Parents display portraits of some of the 21 boys who died in the Hillside Endarasha Academy fire of September 5, 2024, as the public inquest into the tragedy begins at the Nyeri Law Courts on November 20, 2025.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi| Nation Media Group
He explained to the inquest that the assembly camera also covered the entrances to the classrooms and the director’s office, and cutting its cable effectively disrupted its connection to the recording system.
Mr Githinji told the court that parents and local residents who had helped fight the fire told him the cable may have been cut accidentally by a fire engine accessing the dormitory area.
He spent the day at the school waiting for investigators to retrieve the DVR which he had mounted on the ceiling of the director’s office.
Although the device was found to be in good condition, he was not permitted to access it to review any recorded footage.
During the inquest, Mr Githinji had been scheduled to testify alongside Kenya Power engineer Dr Ariel Mutegi, solar expert Peter Ndumia, Government Chemist analyst Henry Sang, and former Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) Director-General Daniel Kiptoo.
However, the prosecution told the court that the four experts were unable to attend.
“We will be seeking court orders to summon the experts who failed to appear today,” the prosecution said.
The inquest continues on Tuesday (April 28), with three teachers and a neighbour expected to testify.
