Blind city? Shame of Nairobi without working CCTV cameras

The fatal shooting of lawyer Mathew Kyalo Mbobu has laid bare Nairobi’s failure to leverage technology in the fight against crime.

A week after Mbobu was felled by a hail of bullets in a drive-by attack along Magadi Road, investigators still have no dependable clues on the identity of his killers.

This is partly attributed to the lack of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras along the stretch where the lawyer’s life was cut short.

Had there been surveillance, video footage could have been crucial in unmasking the gunmen. Notably, the captured CCTV evidence might have made the work of investigators much easier by narrowing down possible suspects as well as having a clearer picture of what transpired before and after the fatal shooting.

Instead, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are relying largely on witness accounts as they attempt to construct a profile of the assailants – an old-fashioned method that is slow, draining, and unreliable.

Even Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has acknowledged the shortcomings, lamenting how investigators are left to struggle without the benefit of technology.

“It is not easy because the area where this incident happened had no CCTV cameras,” Murkomen said on Sunday.

Mbobu, who will be buried tomorrow at his rural home in Makueni County, was shot by the gunmen who then escaped on a motorcycle, vanishing into thin air.

It remains unclear whether they had trailed him from the Central Business District, where he left his office at Town House, or whether the ambush was staged at a traffic choke point.

His execution underscores the capital’s lack of a functional CCTV network capable of detecting, preventing, and aiding in the investigation of crime.

Yet Nairobi’s status as a capital city, coupled with its growing security challenges, demands that the State facilitate a robust electronic surveillance system through the deployment of cameras in the CBD, along major highways and roads, and surrounding environs.

Mbobu’s killing comes barely four months after the similarly  styled assassination of Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were on Ngong Road.

In Ong’ondo’s shooting incident, detectives relied on clues from footage retrieved from CCTV cameras that captured, at different locations, the movement of the two gunmen riding on a motorbike. The crucial leads from the cameras mounted by private individuals assisted in unlocking the murder, leading to the arrest of some of the prime suspects who are currently in court facing murder charges.

Hard nut to crack

But Mbobu’s killing is proving a hard nut to crack – investigators, without the assistance of technology, appear to be groping in the dark as they try to unmask the killers.

Although George Wainaina, Paul Mbugua, and Eric Muhia were initially picked up as persons of interest, the three were set free after preliminary investigations failed to link them to the murder.

Mbobu was gunned down on September 9, 2025, as he drove home. Eight bullets tore into his head, neck, and torso, killing him instantly.

Nairobi, despite years of government promises and millions spent on technology, remains without a coordinated, functional public surveillance system.

The first attempt to cover the city with cameras in 2012 was heralded as a game-changer. The Integrated Urban Surveillance System (IUSS), linked to the Integrated Command, Communication and Control Centre (IC3) at Jogoo House, was launched in 2015 at an estimated cost of Sh437 million. Some 1,800 cameras were installed, meant to bolster security and ease traffic congestion.

In the early days of installation, the cameras had the ability to capture with precision unusual happenings in the CBD and along key roads.

But within a decade, most have become obsolete, vandalised, or dysfunctional. In the event of major or complex crimes, police officers routinely plead with private business owners and homeowners for access to footage – a process often delayed by legal hurdles, sometimes resulting in contaminated or compromised evidence.

In some circumstances, police are required to first obtain search warrants before being allowed to access private cameras. Such delays due to court procedures either lead to contamination of evidence or compromise the quality of investigations.

Exploiting blind spots

According to Dr Alumasi Makanga, a security expert, Nairobi’s surveillance system has failed to deliver because it was never designed to cover the city comprehensively, leaving criminals free to exploit blind spots.

Dr Makanga noted that while the government made an effort by mounting cameras along major highways such as Jogoo Road, Ngong Road, and Thika Road through IUSS, coverage remained far from adequate.

“The cameras are not everywhere. You cannot find them in some residential areas, and they are mostly concentrated in the city centre. The criminals know this. When committing crimes, they avoid areas with cameras and target places where nobody can see them, like where Mbobu was shot,” he explained.

Dr Makanga stated the critical role CCTV plays in crime investigations. According to him, when crimes happen around buildings, CCTV footage is invaluable, especially when cameras are installed strategically – the police rely on them to crack cases and identify suspects.

Beyond investigation, Makanga emphasised that electronic surveillance also acts as a powerful tool in courtrooms.

“The cameras serve as evidence collection, suspect identification, and even self-defence. If you are accused of a crime in point A, you can use CCTV footage from point B to prove that when the crime happened, you were elsewhere,” he explained.

And for CCTV to be useful, quality and coverage are key – the State and organisations must invest in very clear cameras, not just any camera.

“They should be of high quality, usable in court, and ideally with facial recognition. Coverage must also focus on sensitive, crime-prone areas, with regular mapping and improvements,” Dr Makanga said.

In February 2019, the Auditor General raised the red flag with the disclosure that most of the cameras installed in markets, highways, bus parks and around hotels were out of commission due to lack of maintenance.

“No new information has been provided on the status of the cameras that were not functional or whether the requisite equipment previously reported as lacking to enable communication between the control centre and several surveillance points,” stated the Auditor General’s report.

Four months later, on July 5, 2019, the Senate Security, Defence and Foreign Relations Committee questioned the reliability of the CCTV cameras.

Committee chairman, who was then Garissa Senator, the late Yusuf Haji, wondered why the cameras had failed to prevent crime amid frequent cases of murders in the city.

Senator Haji was incensed that the cameras were not able to assist police unravel the cold-blooded executions of former Kabete MP George Muchai on February 7, 2015 and controversial businessman Jacob Juma on May 6, 2016.

“The purpose of these cameras is to detect and prevent crimes in the city. However, we are left to wonder why they have not assisted the police to apprehend the culprits,” noted Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika, now Governor.

The committee, which was meeting Interior Ministry’s Chief Administrative Secretary Stephen Ole Ntutu and officials from the National Police Service, heard that the IC3 at Jogoo House had no long-term storage for CCTV data.

Ntutu, who is now Narok Governor, defended the ministry, saying that data was only stored for 30 days after which it was rendered obsolete.

When he was being vetted last August for the position of Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja acknowledged that the system, which was to be operated by a core team of officers assisted by communications experts, was not reliable.

“The CCTV project was a noble idea to enhance the ability to control and tame crime. I will find out why the system based at Jogoo House in partnership with Safaricom seems to have collapsed. The third eye is key in managing crime,” stated Kanja.