Kenya Insights

Tag: Rex Masai inquest

  • Safaricom Call Logs Place Police Officer at Scene of Rex Masai Shooting

    Safaricom Call Logs Place Police Officer at Scene of Rex Masai Shooting

    Nairobi, Kenya — Safaricom call data has placed police officer Corporal Isaiah Murangiri in Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD) during the anti-finance bill protests in June 2024, contradicting his claim that he had stopped using the mobile number in question a year earlier.

    Appearing before Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo at the Milimani Law Courts, Safaricom senior manager Zachary Kirogoi Mburu testified that the company released call records for three lines linked to Murangiri, Benson Kamau and Michael Oginga Okello after receiving two court production orders.

    According to Mburu, the records showed the numbers were active between June 18 and 20, 2024, with signals bouncing off masts in several parts of the CBD, including Kencom, Accra House, Wincer House, St. Ellis, KBC Towers and Hill Town.

    “The network automatically connects to the nearest available mast within a five-kilometre radius. A subscriber may remain in one spot, yet different masts will still capture the signal,” Mburu explained.

    Prosecutors argued that the evidence directly placed Murangiri in the CBD at the time of the protests, undermining his defence.

    The hearing also heard from a forensic ballistics expert, Senior Superintendent Alex Mudindi Mwandawiro of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

    He confirmed that the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) had submitted a damaged copper bullet jacket for testing on July 1, 2024.

    Mwandawiro identified the 0.83-gram fragment as part of a 5.56mm rifle round that had struck a hard object, leaving its core missing.

    However, ballistic comparisons with several firearms, including three pistols from the DCI armoury, yielded no match.

    He noted that the Ceska F7226 pistol mentioned in IPOA’s documents was not among the weapons provided for testing.

    Rifles typically issued to police and wildlife rangers, such as the Chalbi and AK-101 models, were also excluded since they use different calibres.

    “The findings were inconclusive because the firearms supplied were of different calibres, and the bullet jacket did not match any of the pistols presented,” Mwandawiro told the court.

    The case, part of the inquest into the killing of protester Rex Masai, will be mentioned again on September 25, 2025.

    Masai was fatally shot along Moi Avenue on June 20, 2024, during nationwide demonstrations against the finance bill.

    Murangiri, along with other officers, has been named in connection with the shooting, as investigators seek to piece together events through mobile phone data, ballistic evidence, and eyewitness accounts.

  • Rex Masai Inquest: Court Told How Police Arms Register Was Tampered With to Hide Killer Cop

    Rex Masai Inquest: Court Told How Police Arms Register Was Tampered With to Hide Killer Cop

    A Nairobi Magistrate’s Court heard shocking revelations on Monday about systematic tampering with police firearms records during the June 2024 Gen Z protests, as the inquest into Rex Masai’s death exposed serious irregularities designed to conceal officer accountability.

    Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo was told that Police Constable Simon Waweru received a pistol with 15 rounds of ammunition on June 19 while deployed to River Road but failed to sign for the weapon either when collecting it or returning it to the armory.

    His name was only added to the arms movement register after Corporal Martin Githinji corrected an earlier mistake using white-out fluid.

    “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 testified, though the suspicious alteration raised serious questions about the integrity of official police documentation.

    Corporal Githinji admitted to erroneously recording his name twice in the register and said he corrected the mistake in the presence of the armorer.

    However, during cross-examination, he made a startling admission about the lack of proper training among officers deployed during the deadly protests.

    “I’ve never used rubber bullets or seen them fired. We were not trained to use them,” Githinji testified, highlighting the apparent unpreparedness of officers handling civilian demonstrations with potentially lethal weapons.

    The testimony took another dramatic turn when Officer Geoffrey Murangiri denied being issued rubber bullets despite the arms register bearing his signature next to an entry labeled “R/bullets.”

    He claimed he had signed for a teargas launcher instead, insisting the weapon was incapable of firing rubber bullets.

    Murangiri described the chaotic deployment during the protests, revealing there was no formal briefing on June 20, with officers simply told to remain on standby.

    Rex Masai.
    Rex Masai.

    He used his teargas launcher to disperse protesters who had blocked Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street, though he reported no civilian casualties despite the widespread violence that characterized the police response.

    During re-examination, Murangiri admitted another discrepancy when he explained that while the official log showed his launcher was returned on June 21, he had actually returned it on June 20 at 6:30 p.m.

    These revelations expose a troubling pattern of tampered records, unsigned weapons registers, and multiple discrepancies in officer testimony, suggesting a systematic effort to obscure the truth about weapons deployment during the protests.

    The case has become a crucial test of Kenya’s commitment to police accountability, with the outcome likely to have far-reaching implications for how security forces handle future civilian demonstrations and whether officers who abuse their power can be held to account.

    The inquest into Rex Masai’s death continues as the court seeks to uncover the truth behind the young protester’s killing during demonstrations that became synonymous with police brutality and the abuse of state power.