The inquest into the shooting death of Rex Kanyike Masai, killed during the anti-Finance Bill protests on June 20, 2024, will heavily rely on CCTV footage and mobile phone triangulation, even as police agencies allegedly obstruct the investigation into their own officers. The National Police Service (NPS) persuaded the court to allow fresh testimony from witnesses, despite opposition from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), which had already closed its case. This move allowed NPS to recall representatives from various institutions, including the Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre, Absa Bank, International Life House, and Bliss Hospital, whose evidence is expected to shed light on CCTV footage and the sequence of events. NPS also secured permission to call officers from several police stations to produce arms movement registers for June 20, 2024.
IPOA’s lead investigator, Justin Nyatete, reported attempts to frustrate the probe, including misleading information from key police officers, missing deployment records, and alleged interference with the arms movement register at Central Police Station. Nyatete stated that forensic video analysis of CCTV footage and photographs identified an armed undercover officer in civilian clothing at Moi Avenue and Mama Ngina Street. This officer’s facial features, distinctive birthmark, clothing, and accessories matched those of Police Constable Isaiah Murangiri Ndumba. IPOA obtained Murangiri’s registered mobile phone numbers from Safaricom after he allegedly provided investigators with a number belonging to another person. Phone records, metadata, and cell-site triangulation then placed his handset in the CBD and near the protest route around the time Rex was shot. Murangiri denies being at the scene, but the inquest is expected to test this digital evidence against official police records and witness testimony.
State Violence Exposed
This pattern of state agents implicated in violence extends beyond the protests. When prosecutors opened the murder trial over the death of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang last month, surveillance camera footage became the key witness. For hours, CCTV footage captured inside Nairobi’s Central Police Station was played, reconstructing Ojwang’s final hours and placing former OCS Samson Tallam, police officers James Mukhwana and Peter Kimani, former GSU Unit officer John Ngige Gitau, Gin Ammitou Abwao, and Brian Mwaniki Njue at critical locations before Ojwang was found dead. The Ojwang trial reflects a broader shift where digital evidence is increasingly relied upon to solve complex murders.
Detectives investigating the July 29 shooting of Dr Victoria Mutiso are not treating it as an isolated attack, pursuing leads including forensic analysis of CCTV footage and call data records. At least eight suspects have been named, including three police officers. These cases reveal a recurring involvement of state security personnel in violent crimes, forcing the system to use its own technological tools to investigate its internal contradictions.
The murder trial of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda, and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri, who disappeared after leaving Mavoko Law Courts on June 23, 2016, also relied on an extensive trail of digital evidence. Justice Jessie Lesiit considered over 6,100 pages of documents and 117 exhibits. CCTV recordings and car tracking data were among the most compelling exhibits, showing the trio’s movements before their abduction and transport to Syokimau Police Post. Police communication records traced radio equipment used by officers implicated in the killings, placing devices at various police stations and crucially, near the site where the victims were murdered. Former AP officer Fredrick Leliman was sentenced to death, while his former colleagues Stephen Cheburet and Sylvia Wanjiku received 30 and 24 years in prison, respectively. A police informer was jailed for 20 years.
Digital Trails of Power
Technology has also proved decisive in cases involving powerful individuals outside the immediate state apparatus. The conviction of former Migori Governor Okoth Obado, his former PA Michael Oyamo, and former county officer Caspal Obiero in the Sharon Otieno murder case demonstrates this. While no witness saw Sharon Otieno being killed, the prosecution used mobile phone evidence, digital records, and vehicle tracking data to corroborate 42 witnesses. Justice Cecilia Githua found that Oyamo deliberately acquired an Airtel line using a stolen identity card to conceal his identity when communicating with Sharon. M-Pesa records showed money flowing from Obado to Sharon as he tried to persuade her not to reveal their relationship or pregnancy. The court heard that Sharon and a journalist were instructed by their abductors to switch off their mobile phones, and the vehicle used had its tracking device disabled, which Justice Githua cited as evidence of planning and concealment. DNA tests confirmed Obado’s paternity of the unborn baby, providing a compelling motive.
Similarly, former Kenya Air Force Major Peter Mwaura Mugure was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Joyce Syombua and their two children. M-Pesa records showed Mugure sent Joyce money for her journey days before they disappeared, and mobile phone records placed Joyce and the children inside the military base. Deleted messages from Mugure’s phone and a recovered SIM card corroborated witness testimony, exposing a carefully planned murder.
The Limits of Technology
While digital evidence has become indispensable for reconstructing crime scenes and tracing movements, its application reveals the inherent contradictions of a system that must occasionally expose its own agents or powerful figures to maintain legitimacy. The technology can track individual perpetrators, but it cannot address the systemic issues of state violence, corruption, or the economic policies that drive public dissent, as seen in the anti-Finance Bill protests. The focus on technological solutions for individual cases often obscures the deeper structural problems that continue to plague society, allowing the underlying mechanisms of power and wealth concentration to persist.