Protected Witness: I Was Paid Sh3,000 to Wipe CCTV at Central Police Station After Ojwang Death
The testimony was heard before Justice Diana Kavedza as the prosecution opened its case in the murder trial of six people charged in connection with Ojwang’s death.
Photo: Courtesy.
By Robert Mutasi
A protected prosecution witness on Monday told the High Court in Kibera that he was paid to erase CCTV footage from Nairobi Central Police Station just days after blogger and teacher Albert Ojwang died in police custody.
The testimony was heard before Justice Diana Kavedza as the prosecution opened its case in the murder trial of six people charged in connection with Ojwang’s death.
The witness, identified in court only as DAN for his security, said he is the technician who originally installed the station’s CCTV surveillance system in 2024. He testified that he was summoned back to the station on June 8, 2025, two days after Ojwang died.
According to DAN, he was instructed to delete all surveillance footage recorded on June 6 and 7, 2025. He told the court he explained to those present that the system did not allow selective deletion by date, and that the only way to comply was to format the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) entirely.
After getting approval, he said he logged into the system using the records office credentials, confirmed the footage for those dates existed, and formatted the DVR without watching the recordings. He was then paid Sh3,000 in cash.
DAN further testified that he was later asked to return with two new hard disks. He said he bought them, but was then told they were no longer needed. He was still paid Sh20,000 in cash for the devices.
He told the court he was later informed by a records officer that his contacts had been shared with the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA). He was arrested on June 13, 2025, and later recorded a statement with IPOA investigators. In court, he identified the DVR and two sealed hard disks produced as exhibits.
A second technician, identified only as AK, corroborated the claim of tampering. He said he was called to the station on June 9, 2025, and found IPOA officers already on site. The DVR had been disconnected from power and only resumed recording after he reconnected it. Upon examination, the footage investigators wanted was gone, and in his expert opinion, the DVR had most likely been formatted rather than edited, making recovery impossible.
A third protected witness, a records officer identified as AA, said on the morning of June 8, 2025, staff were informed a detainee had died in the cells. The officer said they later reviewed CCTV together before it was erased and allegedly saw an officer in the company of two unidentified individuals near the cell area, walking toward the last cell and later emerging carrying what appeared to be a heavy object.
The six accused are former Central Police Station OCS Samson Kiprotich Talaam, James Mukhwana, Peter Kimani, John Ngige Gitau, Gin Ammitou Abwao and Brian Mwaniki Njue. They are being prosecuted by a team led by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Jalso Makori. All six have pleaded not guilty.
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