CCTV camera at Central Police Station OCS’s office tampered with, IPOA tells senators

The surveillance system at the office of the Officer Commanding Station (OCS), Nairobi Central Police station, was tampered with on the night teacher and blogger, the Albert Omondi Ojwang was taken there.

This has been revealed by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) Vice Chairperson Ann Wanjiku during her opening statement before the Senate during a session to grill top security chiefs on the circumstances in the mysterious death of the 31-year-old.

“The CCTV systems located at the OCS’ office had been interfered with,” Wanjiku revealed.

She acknowledged that the postmortem of the deceased ruled out the earlier statement by the National Police Service that he died by hitting his head on the walls of the police cell.

Wanjiku stated that the postmortem established the cause of death as head injury due to blunt force trauma, neck compression, and multiple bruises across the body.

“The postmortem exercise conducted yesterday revealed the cause of death as head injury due to blunt force trauma, neck compression, and multiple bruises all over the body. The autopsy report and our preliminary investigations rule out the theory of suicide,” she stated.

Wanjiku revealed the names of five police officers who arrested Ojwang at his parents’ home in Homa Bay County.

She disclosed that Ojwang was arrested by sergeants Sigei, Wesley Kipkorir Kirui and police constables Dennis Kinyoni, Milton Mwanze, and Boniface Rapudo.

“On the 7th of June at around 8 AM, a team comprising Sergeant Sigei, Sergeant Wesley Kipkorir Kirui, Dennis Kinyoni, Milton Mwanze, and Boniface Rapudo went to Lida center in Homa Bay County and arrested the deceased at around 2:30 PM and took him to Mawego police station,” she stated.

While speaking to the Press after the process, the government pathologist, Bernard Midia, said the injuries on the deceased were not self-inflicted but from an assault.

“The pattern of injuries spread all over the body of Ojwang points towards assault,” Midia stated.

He explained that if he had done that, the pattern of the injuries on the head would be different.

“When I examined the injuries on Omondi’s head, he did not hit himself on the walls of the police cell. If he had, the patterns would have shown a frontal bleed, but the bleeds on the scalp were partially spread on the front of the head, the back, and the face. When we refer to the other injuries, then this is not self-inflicted injuries,” he explained.

The pathologist added that there were signs of struggle.

“We have found several injuries, and there were signs of struggle well described in the report for further investigations,” he stated.

The postmortem report contradicted the earlier report issued by the police, which alleged that the deceased was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital after he banged his head on the walls of a police Cell at the Nairobi Central Police Station.

In a report issued by the NPS Spokesperson, Muchiri Nyaga, he stated that the police took the deceased to the hospital after they found him unconscious, while reports at the occurrence book indicate that his death was recorded at the same station one hour after his booking in.

Ojwang was reported dead on Sunday morning to his family, who were following up after his arrest at their home in Homa Bay at around 3 pm on Saturday