NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 13 – Detectives in Nairobi have arrested a technician accused of tampering with the CCTV system at Nairobi’s Central Police Station—one of the key crime scenes in the ongoing investigation into the death of teacher Albert Ojwang while in police custody.
The technician, identified as Kelvin Mutisya Matava, was apprehended on Friday morning from his residence in Nairobi’s Saika area. He is the second suspect to be arrested in connection with the case.
According to police, Matava admitted to being paid Sh3,000 by the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) to delete surveillance footage captured before and after Ojwang was booked at the station on June 7, 2025.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) previously revealed that the CCTV hard drives at the Central Police Station were removed and formatted in a deliberate attempt to erase evidence.
IPOA Chairperson Isaac Hassan told the National Assembly’s Security Committee that digital video recorder (DVR) logs confirmed the hard drives were replaced and formatted on June 8 at exactly 7:23:29 and 7:23:48 a.m.
“Somebody called someone to switch off a particular section, but he said he could only shut down the entire system,” Hassan said, suggesting a coordinated scheme to conceal surveillance footage crucial to the investigation.
Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja earlier confirmed that Ojwang was booked at the Central Police Station under OB number 136/7/6/2025 at 9:35 p.m. on June 7.
He died hours later in what IPOA suspects to be a case of police brutality.
In a statement to investigators, Matava explained that he was first contracted in 2024 to install the CCTV system at the station, which included 25 cameras and a DVR with a 30-day storage capacity.
The cameras were installed at the reporting office, cell corridors, both floors of the station, and the parking yard.
Since the installation, he said, he had occasionally been called back by police officers for maintenance work.
“On June 8, 2025, at 6:22 am I received a phone call from xxx who requested me to proceed to Central Police Station immediately. Upon arrival she took me to the office of the OCS where the server/Digital Video Recorder (DVR) for the surveillance cameras is located,” Matava told police.
He said the OCS and the officer asked him to delete footage from June 6 and 7.
“I informed them deleting footage for specific days is not possible, and the only option was to format the storage/hard drive, which would delete everything stored and restore it to factory settings,” he said.
He claimed he carried out the instructions, after which the OCS handed him Sh3,000.
Later that evening, the female officer allegedly tried to contact him again, calling twice at 7:55 p.m. and 7:56 p.m., but he did not pick up.
The following day, on June 9 at 6:28 a.m., Matava said the same officer called again and requested him to return with a new hard drive to replace the formatted one.
She also instructed him not to wear any clothing that would identify him as a technician.
However, upon arriving at the station, he claimed that he discovered that someone had already accessed the DVR, which had been interfered with.
“She further insisted that I should not wear a reflector or any clothing that would indicate I am a technician.”
“Since at that time the shops where I could source the hard drive were yet to open, I first proceeded there without a hard drive but only to find that somebody had already opened the DVR machine and hard drive interfered with since it was not the way I had left it the previous day,” he said.
The female officer told him to come back later in the evening.
At around 12:07 pm she called him and asked if he was available but at that time he was working at Westlands.
She further informed him she had given his mobile phone number to an IPOA officer who wanted assistance to retrieve CCTV footages.
The IPOA official called and requested him to proceed there to assist them.
Instead, the technician sent a colleague because he was busy at work.
“I was also worried since I had seen on social media that a person had died while at Central Police Station under mysterious circumstances and taking into consideration the instructions I had been given by the OCS and Sharon to format and delete everything from the CCTV hard drive/ storage.”
Matava’s arrest comes a day after a police constable was taken into custody for allegedly playing a role in the incident.
