By:Robert Wafula Mutasi
Chilling CCTV footage played at the Kibera High Court on Tuesday has laid bare the final hours of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang inside Nairobi Central Police Station, showing him walk in while making a phone call and hours later being carried out seemingly lifeless.
The footage was presented by Joshua Mutua, the head of forensics and crime scene investigations at the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), who is testifying as a protected prosecution witness before Justice Diana Kavedza.
Mutua told the court that investigators recovered about 489 gigabytes of CCTV data from the station but condensed it to a 40.1GB brief for court purposes because viewing the entire cache would take at least a week. He said the footage was subjected to forensic authentication to confirm it had not been tampered with.
“We recovered around 489GB data but found it would take around one week to view the footage. For purposes of following the matter, we prepared a brief of 40.1GB,” Mutua said.
He told the court the video would demonstrate two critical facts: “Albert Ojwang arrived while able to walk within Central Police Station and seemed to be making phone calls” and “by the time Albert left Central Police Station he was unresponsive.”
According to the timeline reconstructed from the cameras, Ojwang arrived at Central at 9:23 p.m. on June 7, 2025, in a black SUV in the company of six men. Mutua identified him by his attire – a football jersey, beach trousers and open shoes.
One of the men accompanying him is captured handing him a red jumper and appearing to remove his handcuffs outside the report office.
“All this time Albert is seen engaging in a phone call,” Mutua testified as the clip played.
The footage shows him being escorted into the report office where he sits for about 15 minutes as officers move in and out. At about 9:38 p.m., Police Constable Peter Kimani, one of the accused, escorts him from the holding bay to the prisoners’ processing area and then towards the cells.
Around 10:46 p.m., the court watched as Ojwang is taken towards the last cell in the block, which investigators have designated as the crime scene. Mutua identified the group as PC James Mukhwana, PC John Ngige, a goatee-bearded unidentified man, and another unidentified man wearing a Maasai shuka.
“He is captured being aggressively dashed to the crime scene cell,” Mutua narrated. Justice Kavedza observed that Ojwang appeared to lose balance after hitting a wall as he was forced inside.
What followed, according to IPOA, was repeated movement in and out of that last cell. At about 10:56 p.m., Prosecutor Jalson Makori drew the court’s attention to an individual emerging from the cell with what appeared to be a reddish substance on his right hand, who Mutua identified as Constable John Ngige.
The court also saw an accused civilian, Gin Ammitou Abwao, making several trips between the washrooms and the last cell carrying a yellow jerrican. Moments later, Constable Mukhwana is seen unlocking another cell and using his phone torch to peep inside the last cell, while Constable Kimani looks inside and then runs towards the processing area while on phone.
Shortly after 1:10 a.m. on June 8, four uniformed officers wearing what appeared to be gloves are captured carrying an apparently lifeless Ojwang from the last cell. They briefly stop at the processing area before loading him alone at the back of a police vehicle. Inspector Samuel Nganga, another officer and the driver sat in the front cabin.
“He is captured being carried by four uniformed police officers from the cells, placed at the back of a police vehicle alone, seemingly unresponsive,” Mutua said. The vehicle left the station at 1:26 a.m.
On trial are former Central OCS Chief Inspector Samson Kiprotich Talaam, Constables James Mukhwana and Peter Kimani, John Ngige Gitau, Gin Ammitou Abwao and Brian Mwaniki Njue. They have all denied murder.
