By Valentine Omondi
The second day of the murder case of teacher and blogger Albert Omondi Ojwang was dominated by chilling CCTV footage, digital forensic evidence, and testimony surrounding the movements of two unidentified men whose appearance inside Nairobi Central Police Station has become a major focus of the prosecution’s case.
As proceedings resumed before Justice Diana Rachael Kavedza at the Kibra High Court, prosecutors continued piecing together what they described as the final moments leading to Ojwang’s death while in police custody. The day’s hearing largely revolved around surveillance footage recovered by investigators from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), which prosecutors argue contradicts the initial police account that Ojwang died from self-inflicted injuries.
The courtroom remained silent as recovered CCTV footage was projected before the court, with prosecutors taking witnesses through various clips captured by cameras installed at different points within Nairobi Central Police Station.
According to testimony presented in court, the footage showed Ojwang arriving at the station after his transfer from Homa Bay County. Prosecutors said he appeared to be walking normally as officers escorted him through the station before he was booked into custody.
An IPOA forensic investigator told the court that although investigators found that the station’s Digital Video Recorder had been formatted after Ojwang’s death, digital forensic experts were able to recover significant portions of the surveillance footage that investigators now consider critical to the case.
The prosecution argued that the recovered footage has enabled investigators to reconstruct events inside the station during the hours preceding Ojwang’s death.
A key moment in Tuesday’s proceedings came when the prosecution directed the court’s attention to footage allegedly showing two unidentified men entering the station before the period during which Ojwang is believed to have sustained the injuries that later caused his death.
According to the prosecution, the two men were captured by surveillance cameras entering restricted sections of the station while accompanied by a police officer. The footage, prosecutors argued, raises serious questions about who the two men were, why they were allowed into the station, and what role, if any, they may have played in the events that followed.
The identities of the two men were not disclosed in court, and prosecutors indicated that investigations into their identities remain ongoing.
The court also heard testimony from a protected witness who assisted prosecutors in identifying officers captured on the surveillance footage.
The witness identified Police Constable Peter Kimani as the officer serving as the cell sentry during the material period and guided the court through various clips showing movements around the report office, corridors, and entrances leading to the police cells.
According to the witness, the footage placed several officers within the vicinity of the cells during the hours under investigation.
The prosecution maintains that establishing which officers were on duty and their movements within the station is crucial in determining individual responsibility for what happened to Ojwang.
As prosecutors continued presenting the recovered footage, the court was shown additional clips that, according to media reports from the proceedings, appeared to depict several men confronting and roughing up another individual inside the station. The prosecution relied on the footage as part of its broader effort to reconstruct the sequence of events. However, the identity of the individual shown in those particular images remained a matter before the court and had not been conclusively established during Tuesday’s proceedings.
Justice Kavedza at one point directed the prosecution to enlarge and zoom in on portions of the CCTV footage to enable the court to better examine the individuals appearing in the recordings and to assist in identifying persons captured by the surveillance cameras.
The direction underscored the growing importance of the digital evidence as the prosecution continued building its case.
IPOA investigators also testified about the condition of the CCTV system during their investigations.
The court heard that investigators established the station’s Digital Video Recorder had been formatted, effectively deleting crucial recordings. Despite that development, forensic experts succeeded in recovering parts of the erased footage, which now forms one of the prosecution’s principal pieces of evidence.
Prosecutors contend that the alleged deletion of surveillance footage points to an attempt to interfere with evidence following Ojwang’s death. The defence disputes that interpretation and maintains that the prosecution must prove every allegation beyond reasonable doubt.
Tuesday’s proceedings built upon claims made during the opening day of the trial when prosecutors alleged that Ojwang was assaulted while in police custody before efforts were allegedly made to conceal what had happened.
The prosecution insists that witness testimony, forensic analysis, and digital evidence will demonstrate that Ojwang’s injuries were sustained while under police custody and not through self-inflicted harm as initially reported.
Lawyers representing the accused persons continued challenging aspects of the prosecution’s evidence through cross-examination, particularly questioning the handling of digital evidence and the conclusions drawn by investigators.
Six accused persons, including former Nairobi Central Police Station Officer Commanding Station Samson Talaam, have denied the charges facing them.
Ojwang’s death sparked widespread public outrage and renewed debate over police accountability, with civil society organisations, human rights defenders, and members of the public closely following the proceedings.
As the hearing adjourned, Justice Kavedza directed that the trial would continue with further prosecution witnesses expected to testify on the forensic findings and the sequence of events captured by the recovered CCTV footage.
With digital evidence now at the centre of the proceedings, the case has entered a critical stage where prosecutors hope surveillance footage, forensic analysis, and witness testimony will establish what transpired inside Nairobi Central Police Station on the night Albert Ojwang died. At the same time, the defence is expected to continue scrutinising the prosecution’s evidence as the court works toward determining the truth behind one of Kenya’s most closely watched custodial death cases.
