New details have emerged in the inquest into the death of Rex Kanyike Masai. On Monday, Corporal Fredrick Odera Okapesi, the officer in charge of the armoury at the Nairobi Central Police Station, took the stand, admitting to making alterations to the station’s arms movement register. This revelation, while explained as a correction for “human error,” has raised serious questions about the credibility of the records from the day of the protest.
Okapesi, appearing before Senior Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo at the Milimani Law Courts, testified that the register is handwritten and that he had corrected blank spaces and made entries on pages that were incomplete. He defended the alterations, stating that leaving blanks was a safety concern and that he had used permissible correction methods. He urged the court to treat the register as a credible record despite the oversights, describing the anomalies as human error.
Under questioning, Okapesi outlined the procedure for issuing firearms, emphasizing that officers are required to sign for weapons and that no firearm may be taken without authorization. He also testified that Constable Isaiah Murangiri, an officer who has been a subject of social media scrutiny, had been issued a launcher for firing rubber bullets and canisters for crowd control, not a live firearm. Okapesi maintained that the Central Police Station register did not show any unauthorized issuance of guns and rejected suggestions that the alterations were intended to protect specific officers.
However, prosecutors and counsel for the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) pressed him on inconsistencies, including overwritten signatures and double entries, suggesting a more deliberate intent to obscure the truth.
The inquest also heard forensic evidence from a government analyst at the Kenya Bureau of Standards. DNA tests on exhibits submitted by IPOA produced profiles that matched samples taken from the deceased, confirming the presence of human blood on some of the submitted materials. This forensic evidence, along with the arms movement register, remains central to the examination of how firearms and other crowd-control equipment were issued on the days surrounding the protest.
The hearing, part of a wider inquiry into Masai’s death during the anti-Finance Bill demonstrations on June 20, 2024, has been adjourned until September 15, 2025, when additional witnesses are expected to testify.
