CCTV footage from Central Police Station on the night when Albert Ojwang' was allegedly murdered while in police custody was played in court on Monday, July 20.
During court proceedings, one of the lawyers presented the clip, which was recovered by detectives from the Independent Policing and Oversight Authority (IPOA), as he questioned several witnesses.
According to the clip, a man in blue attire, who was positively identified as one of the officers deployed to the Central Police Station, was seen interacting with two unidentified individuals at the main entrance of the holding cells about 10.25 p.m on June 7, 2025.
The two unidentified individuals, who were wearing caps, then went into the searching area before being allowed into the area where the cells were.
They then headed directly to the cell at the end of the block, where the late Albert Ojwang was held. When they left the cell, the time stamp on the CCTV footage was 10.41 p.m.
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"Are these the two unidentified individuals? Just explain to the court since you are well versed with the area," the Advocate of the High Court posed.
"That is the last cell I was talking about. They are now coming back to the searching area. You can notice that they are trying to shield their faces," the witness told the court.
The individuals had a brief chat with the officer at the main entrance for approximately three minutes before going back to the ill-fated cell.
The officer is seen locking the door separating the search area and the cells. At about 11.45pm, two other men, apart from the men unidentified earlier, are seen running from the cell at the end of the block.
They ran towards the searching area where the men who were wearing caps were waiting. Shortly afterwards, five men were seen running back to the ill-fated cell.
Aloni Okwako, a CCTV technician called to testify in court, confirmed that the CCTV footage was manually erased.
Okwako confirmed that he met two police officers, who told him that they wanted some work done on the Digital Video Recorder machine in the OCS's office. Ther DVR is the central recording unit for traditional analogue CCTV systems.
The Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) told the court that they have reasons to believe that Albert Ojwang was not only murdered, but also that the perpetrators had pre-planned to kill him in the police cell.
The prosecution said Ojwang was assaulted with a blunt object before being strangled to death while in police custody.
DPP Renson Ingonga told the court that medical evidence will show Ojwang sustained blunt force head injuries, neck compression and multiple injuries across his body, findings that the prosecution says are inconsistent with the initial police account of how he died.
Albert Ojwang died under mysterious circumstances at Central Police Station in Nairobi on June 8, 2025.
The 31-year-old had been arrested a day earlier at his home in Kakoth, Homa Bay County, and transported to Nairobi following a complaint lodged by Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat.
Later that night, duty officers reported that Ojwang was “making noise” before he was found unconscious just four minutes later. He was rushed to Mbagathi Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
