Puzzle of missing CCTV footage at DCI in lawyer's murder case

CCTV footage that forms crucial evidence in the trial of an Eldoret lawyer accused of killing his colleague in 2019 is missing.

After snubbing court summons leading to a warrant of arrest being issued against him, Inspector Daniel Kieni, a senior cyber-crime detective from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters in Nairobi, finally appeared before Eldoret High Court Judge Robert Wananda. But without the footage that would form part of the prosecution’s case.

He said it went missing from the DCI labs.

The prosecution counsel, led by Brenda Oduor, told the judge that the officer, who is a prosecution witness in the case, needed more time to retrieve the missing footage.

 “This is a 2019 matter. Has the DCI never known that they have to retrieve the footage? That explanation does not make sense to me at all. Unless there is a different explanation,” Justice Wananda posed.

Oduor said the footage, which was retrieved from CCTV cameras at an apartment in Eldoret’s Annex area where the murder incident took place, had been handed over to DCI cybercrime unit but the officers failed to appear in court with the material, leading to the arrest warrant.

She added that the deceased’s father, Hesbon Ngaira, was forced to visit the DCI headquarters concerned about the delay occasioned by the officers. Mr Ngaira, however, was not informed about the missing footage.

“The DCI officers did not act in good faith. The landlady of the apartment where the incident took place had told the court that Inspector Kieni was among the officers who retrieved the CCTV footage from her apartment in May 2019. Since Kieni is present in court today, he should substantiate his claims on oath and before this honourable court,” the prosecution urged.

After taking oath, Kieni said he personally retrieved the footage at the scene in the company of the investigating officer (IO), one Sergent Sophia Hassan.

After the exercise, Kieni recounted that he handed over a copy of the footage to the IO in a compact disk for her consumption and investigations.

Backup footage

“We ascertained that the footage was playing. I remained with the backup footage. I also documented the cameras and took pictures of the scene. I played the footage which had timings of the incident between 1708 hours to 1715 hours of that day, May 18, 2019,” Kieni stated.

The cybercrime forensic officer claimed that the copy from the IO, which he had brought to court, was not playing.

He claimed that in June 2022, the cybercrime unit in Nairobi moved from their old lab to a new one and that in the process, the drives that they had were mixed up and could not be traced.

“I realised that the footage was missing one year, five months later when the IO called me. The IO had called after discovering that the material she had was not playing,” Kieni claimed. The officer told the court that he had tried getting a software, called VIP, that could scan the drives and retrieve the footage.

Justice Wananda questioned what other avenues the detectives would employ to get the footage should the plan by Kieni fail.

“I called the apartment’s landlady, Emily Cherop, who told me that her husband who has the laptop bearing the original footage is abroad. We can get the footage from the laptop,” Kieni stated.

However, the prosecution brought to the attention of the court that the said laptop is in the country, in Nairobi, and not abroad, and that the court’s intervention was required to have the laptop made available in court.

Justice Wananda issued orders to the landlady to get the laptop to the IO for extraction of the footage needed.

The judge has also issued a summons to Ms Hassan through the commandant at Embakasi Administration Police Training College where the IO is attending training so that she can be released to testify in the matter.

The court further issued summons to Chief Inspector Simon Kipruto, the officer in charge of the cybercrime unit at DCI headquarters to provide an explanation to the court in regards to the misplacement of the footage.

“The matter is deferred for three months to give Kieni time to obtain the CCTV footage,” the judge said.

Lawyer Abel Mogaka is alleged to have killed his colleague Calvins Musachi Ngaira by stabbing him in the neck using a broken bottle at a house party in the outskirts of Eldoret town.

The late Ngaira had practised for barely three months before he met his death on May 18, 2019. Calvins was Mr Ngaira’s only son. Ngaira is a principal at Hill School in Eldoret.

The case is slated for further hearing on February 26, 2025.