A protected witness has told the High Court that former OCS Samson Talaam paid him to format CCTV footage from the night teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang died in police custody.
The murder trial of former Nairobi Central Police Station OCS Samson Talaam and five others has taken a dramatic turn, with prosecution witnesses testifying on how surveillance footage from the night blogger and teacher Albert Omondi Ojwang died in custody was allegedly deleted.
The six accused — Talaam, James Mukhwana, Peter Kimani, John Ngige Gitau, Gin Ammitou Abwao and Brian Mwaniki Njue — have all pleaded not guilty to Ojwang's murder.
Deletion Testimony
A protected witness, identified in court only as DAN, testified before Justice Diana Kavedza at the High Court in Kibera that he had installed Central Police Station's CCTV system in 2024 and was summoned back to the station on June 8, 2025, the day after Ojwang was detained.
According to the witness, he was instructed to format the station's DVR, and did so in a matter of minutes after getting approval from the OCS, without first viewing the recordings.
He testified that he was paid 3,000 shillings in cash by Talaam for the task, and later given an additional 20,000 shillings to purchase replacement hard disks, though he was ultimately told they were no longer needed.
A second witness, CCTV technician Aaron Okwako, corroborated the account, testifying that he was called to the station on June 9, 2025, and found IPOA investigators already on scene. He said the DVR had been disconnected from power and only resumed recording once reconnected, and concluded that the sought footage could not be recovered as the device had most likely been formatted rather than selectively edited.
DPP: Death Was Not an Accident
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Renson Ingonga, told the court that Ojwang arrived at the station alive and in good health and was pronounced dead the following morning, arguing that the evidence points to a deliberate assault rather than an accident.
Medical evidence presented indicates Ojwang died from blunt force trauma and neck compression, contradicting the initial police account that he died after hitting his head against a wall while in the cell.
The prosecution said it intends to rely on medical reports, forensic findings, CCTV analysis, police records and witness testimony, including from Ojwang's family, to reconstruct the events leading to his death, alongside evidence of an alleged cover-up afterward.
The trial continues as the court examines the responsibility of each of the accused.