How CCTV footage in Albert Ojwang murder was tampered with

Teacher Albert Odhiambo Ojwang was clobbered with a blunt object, strangled and assaulted to death inside a cell at Central Police Station and not an accident as alleged, the High Court has been told.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Renson Ingonga yesterday, witnesses painted to the High Court Judge Diana Kavedza the happenings of June 7 and 8, last year when Odhiambo was detained at Central following an alleged complaint by the Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat.

Prosecutors Gikui Gichuhi, Duncan Ondimu and Jalson Makori, in their opening statement on behalf of Ingonga, said that the evidence gathered pointed to a planned murder plot.

“Medical evidence will establish that Albert Ojwang died from blunt force head injuries, neck compression and multiple injuries sustained over his body — injuries wholly inconsistent with any suggestion that he merely struck his own head against a wall. Indeed, My Lady, the prosecution shall invite the Court to find that the physical evidence is wholly inconsistent with the explanation initially advanced,” the court heard.

Further, three witnesses- a technician, his helper and a police officer told the court of footage deletion and hard disk tampering through formatting.

Those accused of the murder are former Central boss Station OCS Samson Talaam, Police Constables James Mukhwana and Peter Kimani, and civilians John Ngige, Gin Ammitou Abwao and Brian Mwaniki Njue.

The first prosecution witness was Aloni Okwako. He told the court that he assisted his boss codenamed DAB to install the CCTV cameras at the police station and on June 9, 2025, he was called by his employer at around 1 pm to head to Central Police Station because the station’s Digital Video Recorder (DVR) was not working.

He narrated that he immediately went to the office of the OCS.

“I went to the OCS’s office on the first floor and was told to wait in a small room. There were two IPOA officers outside. The work I was to do was to retrieve the CCTV.

According to him, IPOA’s officers' interest was to first check if it was working, then retrieve data for the 6th and 7th June. He explained that he only checked the two dates and the data was missing. According to him, the data was first deleted, then the device was formatted

“It had been deleted and formatted. The device can't delete the data by itself. Even when it deletes data, you still can access the data. This was done by a person. I knew that the device had been removed because the hard disks were not in their place,” testified Makori.

The second witness under protection told the court that he is a technician whose work is to install CCTV. The witness codenamed DAN said another person codenamed AA called him that there was work at the Central Police Station.

“I went there and I found the person who called me in his office. He directed me to the OCS office on the first floor and I got the OCS. It was me, AA and the OCS. I was told that I needed to retrieve footage from the DVR.

They gave me specific dates: 6th and 7th June, 2025. Was told to delete the footage for two days; instead, we formatted the hard disk.  I went to the main menu, storage, disk manager and marked the hard disk, then formatted it.

He informed the court that he had earlier installed the entire system and had the password.

“Before formatting, I checked whether there was recorded data. I looked at the dates recorded and there was footage. I did not look at the footage but they also did not look at it. The DVR has two hard disks.

I had opened the DVR; the upper case and one hard disk were hanging while the other was attached. It took around three or four minutes. The OCS paid me Sh3,000 by Talam.

AA called me later but did not pick up his call. On June 9, 2025, I was called by AA; this time come with a hard disk and should not wear a reflector jacket.

He narrated that he got to Central at around 8 am and they asked for the hard disk, which I did not have. He went back and brought a three-terabyte Western Digital disk, two.

He further narrated that he was paid Sh20,000 cash for the two disks.

“I thereafter left the station. Around 12 pm to 1 pm, he was called by AA that he had given my number to IPOA, who then called me and I informed them that he was away at Westlands but would send a helper.

He stated that after the IPOA call, he got to learn that someone had died at Central. The witness was arrested on June 13, 2025.

AA also asked if he had recorded the conversation between them. He asserted that she was not worried.

Police officer at Central Police Station.

I have been in the force for 10 years.

The witness stated that she worked with Inspector Talam and was at the Station’s records office.

She narrated that she reported at 5 am to give radio call batteries which were at the OCS and record office. “I found that the records office lights were on and the main entrance was open,” adding that she went ahead to open the records office.

The officer then went to collect the other batteries from the OCS office and found him seated.

The court heard that Talam inquired whether she had heard ‘maneno’ and asked what it was about. According to her, the police boss told her that ‘mahabusu’ had died.

 She claimed that the file indicated that there was suicide that had happened. However, the officer had doubts. “I asked where the cell entry was when this happened? What will PC Kimani say?” she testified, adding that later Talam asked her to call the person who installed the CCTV camera.

“I obtained his number when he came to install the CCTV camera. I had called him on two other occasions and the second time, I called him to install extra cameras. He told me he was still sleeping. I told the OCS, who told me to tell him to take an Uber; he’ll pay by himself,” she continued.

She explained that she watched the CCTV and identified two persons, one of them who was identified by Talam as her colleague Mukhwana.

The officer placed Talam at the heart of the evidence deletion bid. She said that when he told her to call the technician, he informed her that the CCTV was bringing them problems.

She was shown the CCTV footage and explained that Kimani is seen with two unidentified persons at the main entrance to the cells.  

The footage shows a group of five persons dragging a person to one of the cells.