CCTV footage played before the High Court has captured the final moments of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang inside Nairobi’s Central Police Station, showing what prosecutors say is his motionless body being carried from the police cells by several officers before being taken to hospital.
The footage, presented as part of the prosecution’s case in the ongoing murder trial, first shows Ojwang arriving at the station alive in a Subaru following his arrest. He is later seen being escorted into the cell block, where prosecutors allege he was fatally assaulted while in police custody.
In a dramatic sequence shown in court, several officers are then seen carrying what appears to be Ojwang’s limp body through the station corridor before placing him into a waiting vehicle. The prosecution argues the footage contradicts earlier police accounts of the circumstances surrounding his death and supports its case that Ojwang sustained fatal injuries while in custody.
The footage also captures the movements of several officers and other individuals within the station during the night of June 7 and the early hours of June 8, with prosecutors maintaining that the recordings are crucial in reconstructing the events leading to Ojwang’s death.
The CCTV evidence was recovered despite an alleged attempt to destroy it.
Earlier in the trial, a protected prosecution witness testified that he was summoned to Central Police Station on June 8, 2025, and instructed to erase surveillance footage covering the period when Ojwang was detained. The technician told the court that because the CCTV system could not selectively delete recordings for specific dates, he formatted the station’s Digital Video Recorder (DVR), wiping all stored footage, and was allegedly paid Sh3,000 after completing the task.
However, investigators from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) later recovered portions of the deleted recordings, which are now being relied upon by the prosecution as key evidence in the case.
Former Central Police Station Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Samson Talaam and several co-accused have denied murder charges arising from Ojwang’s death. They remain presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Ojwang, a teacher and blogger from Homa Bay County, died on June 8, 2025, shortly after being arrested over allegations linked to social media posts. His death triggered nationwide outrage after an independent post-mortem examination concluded that he had suffered injuries consistent with assault, contradicting initial police claims that he had inflicted the injuries on himself.
The High Court is expected to continue hearing testimony from additional witnesses as the prosecution seeks to establish what transpired during Ojwang’s final hours in police custody and whether there was an attempt to conceal evidence following his death.
