Two suspects accused of interfering with CCTV footage tied to the suspicious death of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang’ were arraigned on Monday afternoon at the Kibera Law Courts.
The suspects face charges of obstructing justice after allegedly tampering with surveillance recordings believed to hold crucial evidence in the ongoing investigation into Ojwang’s death while in police custody at Nairobi Central Police Station.
Among those arraigned is a technician accused of receiving Ksh3,000 to alter CCTV footage at the station. Detectives arrested him at his Saika residence on Friday morning during a targeted operation.
During questioning, he reportedly admitted to playing a role in attempts to interfere with the CCTV system in what authorities say was a deliberate move to derail justice.
According to his statement to police, the technician had originally been contracted by a woman in 2024 to install the surveillance system at Nairobi Central Police Station. She supplied all the equipment, including 25 cameras and a DVR server with 30-day footage retention capacity.
He installed the cameras in key locations across the station: the report office, both floors, cellblock corridors, and the parking yard. Although he wasn’t frequently called back, he had returned occasionally for maintenance.
On June 8, 2025, at exactly 6:22 a.m., a police officer from the station called and urgently requested him to report to the station. Once he arrived, he was escorted to a senior officer’s office where the DVR system is housed. There, he was allegedly asked to delete recordings from June 6 and 7.
Impossible to Delete Footage
The technician told investigators he explained to the officers that deleting footage from specific days wasn’t possible. The only way to remove content, he said, would be to format the hard drive, which would erase all footage and reset the system to default settings.
He claimed he didn’t proceed with any deletions or formatting. Nonetheless, after the encounter, a senior officer handed him Ksh3,000 as payment for the task..
The following morning, June 9 at 6:28 a.m., the same officer reportedly contacted him again and instructed him to return to the station with a new hard drive to replace the original one in the DVR.
The technician said the officer warned him not to wear reflective clothing or anything that might indicate he was a technician. Since local electronics shops had not opened yet, he went to the station without the new drive. When he arrived, he found the DVR had already been opened and tampered with.
He was told to return later.
At 12:07 p.m. that same day, the officer called again to ask about his availability. The technician, who was working in Westlands at the time, said he couldn’t leave work.
During the call, the officer informed him that his contact had been shared with an official from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), who needed assistance retrieving CCTV footage for the investigation.
While the IPOA officer did reach out, the technician declined to assist directly, citing his work commitments and growing concern over widespread media reports linking the station to a possible custodial death. Instead, he referred the official to a trusted colleague who could help access the footage.
