CCTV formatting plot unravels in Ojwang's death

The mystery surrounding the death of social media influencer and teacher Albert Ojwang’ in police custody took a dramatic twist on Friday after the officer in charge of Central Police Station, Chief Inspector Samson Talam, was arrested in Eldoret and transported to Nairobi, marking the first clear crack in what appeared to be a cover-up and a search for a scapegoat.

The cover-up plot thickened on the same day a technician suspected of tampering with CCTV cameras, allegedly to conceal what really happened at Central Police Station on the nights of June 7 and 8, 2025, was arrested.

The technician, Kelvin Mutisya Mutava, was arrested in Nairobi and allegedly told investigators he had been paid Sh3,000 to tamper with the CCTV system.

Meanwhile, the hunt for the officer commanding one of Kenya’s oldest stations, Central Police Station in Nairobi, ended in Eldoret, over 300 kilometres away, when detectives tracked down Talam. His phone had been switched off since Thursday, making him unreachable.

Chief Inspector Talam was arrested by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and handed over to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) for interrogation at the authority’s headquarters.

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Earlier, DCI Director Mohamed Amin had told both the Senate and the National Assembly that the Station Commander was the main suspect in Ojwang’s murder.
The Standard has learnt that Mutava was called to Central Police Station on Sunday, June 8, by one of the officers, as he had been part of the team that installed the CCTV cameras.

According to sources, the technician believed he was responding to a routine maintenance request, only to be asked to delete footage captured on June 6 and 7. He allegedly told the officer that it was not possible, explaining that the only way to delete the footage would be by resetting the system. He was then given Sh3,000 and asked to return the following day.

However, when he returned on June 9, he claimed to have found that the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) had already been formatted. This was also confirmed by IPOA, which said that the footage for the two days was deleted on June 8.

“That the CCTV system located at OCS’s office had been interfered with, i.e. DVR power cable was disconnected, the DVR logs indicated that the operating discs had been changed and formatted on June 8, 2025, at 07:28:43hrs and 07:32:29hrs,” said IPOA chief executive Elema Halake.

But as the hunt for the shadowy killers of the teacher in police custody intensified, and calls for Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Eliud Lagat to resign mounted, he was notably absent from an event where President William Ruto oversaw the burning of 7,000 illegal firearms at the Ngong Police Academy.

Meanwhile, IPOA chairperson Isaac Hassan said the authority had not yet summoned Lagat, explaining that he is currently being treated as a complainant, not a suspect.

Yesterday, relatives who recorded statements were Ojwang’s father Meshack Opiyo, his mother, Eucabeth Adhiambo, widow Nevinina Onyango and an uncle.

At the same time, Police Constable James Mukhwana was arraigned in court over the death with the police seeking time to hold him as they continue with the probe.

Mukhwana is said to be the custodian of the keys to the cell where the 34-year-old teacher was held, and is due to return in court on June 20 to know whether he will be freed on bail.