A Nairobi Magistrate’s Court on Monday heard of serious irregularities in the issuance and documentation of police firearms during the June 2024 Gen Z protests.
Testifying before Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo, Police Constable Simon Waweru revealed that he received a pistol with 15 rounds of ammunition on June 19 while deployed to River Road but failed to sign for it neither at the time of issuance nor upon returning it.
The court was also informed that his name was added to the arms movement register after an earlier mistaken entry by Corporal Martin Githinji was corrected. The correction was reportedly made using white-out.
“My force number appears in the register, but I did not sign. The armorer had already signed. I believe it was a mistake, not an intentional false entry,” Waweru said.
Corporal Githinji, who also took the stand, admitted to erroneously recording his name twice in the register and said he corrected the mistake in the presence of the armorer. He maintained the entries were legitimate.
During cross-examination, Githinji disclosed that he had never been trained to use rubber bullets.
“I’ve never used rubber bullets or seen them fired. We were not trained to use them. Some training happens in the field, but this was never part of it,” he said, responding to questions on whether such rounds were deployed during the protests.
Githinji also confirmed that no live rounds were fired by officers under his command, including Waweru, during the operation.
In a separate testimony, Officer Geoffrey Murangiri denied being issued with rubber bullets despite the arms register bearing his signature beside an entry labeled “R/bullets.”
“I signed against the body number of a teargas launcher,” he clarified. “That weapon doesn’t fire rubber bullets. I was only issued with a teargas launcher.”
Murangiri explained that while firearms and launchers are logged in the armory register, teargas canisters are distributed on-site depending on operational needs and the number of officers present.
He told the court that on June 18, he was placed on standby due to anticipated protests. He later changed into a jungle uniform, picked up a teargas launcher from the armory, and joined patrols within the Nairobi Central Business District. The day reportedly passed without major incident, and he returned the launcher that evening. He did not work on June 19.
On June 20, Murangiri was again deployed with the same launcher and used it to disperse protesters who had blocked roads in parts of the CBD, including Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street. He reported no civilian injuries or deaths, although some officers sustained injuries.
He also testified that there was no formal briefing on June 20, and his instructions were simply to remain on standby.
During re-examination, Murangiri clarified that the “R/bullets” entry did not necessarily refer to rubber bullets and insisted that the register had not been falsified. He further explained that while the log shows the launcher was returned on June 21, he had actually returned it on June 20 at 6:30 p.m.
