The murder trial of former Nairobi Central Police Station OCS Samson Talaam and five others took a new turn after a CCTV technician testified that the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) at the station had been formatted, leaving no recordings for the period investigators were seeking.
Testifying as the first prosecution witness, Aloni Okwako told the High Court that he was called to Central Police Station on June 9, 2025, after being informed by his employer that the station’s DVR had developed a technical problem.
Upon arriving at the station, Okwako said he found officers from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), who asked him to inspect the DVR located in the OCS’s office and assist in retrieving CCTV footage. He testified that the DVR was switched off because its power supply had been disconnected, although the CCTV cameras remained powered on. After reconnecting the power cable and switching the DVR back on, IPOA officers documented the entire process by taking photographs and recording videos.
The witness told the court he was asked to retrieve CCTV footage for June 6 and June 7, 2025. However, after logging into the system and searching for the recordings, he found that no footage was available for those dates.
According to Okwako, the DVR had been formatted, meaning the recordings investigators were looking for had been deleted. He further testified that after opening the DVR, he observed that some of its internal components had been removed before IPOA officers completed documenting the device.
The evidence forms part of the prosecution’s case alleging that CCTV evidence at Central Police Station was tampered with following the death of Albert Omondi Ojwang while in police custody.
Former OCS Samson Talaam and his five co-accused have denied the murder charges. The hearing continues.
