IPOA accuses police of frustrating investigations into Rex Masai's killing

The inquest into the death of Rex Kanyike Masai during the anti-government protests of June 2024 took another turn on Thursday after the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) complained of a lack of cooperation from the police.

IPOA lawyers told the Milimani Law Courts that police officers from Parliament, KICC, Kamukunji and Kilimani Police Stations had failed to record statements on the circumstances surrounding Masai’s death despite an existing court order directing them to do so.

“You gave an order that police officers at Parliament Police Station, KICC Police Station, Kamukunji Police Station and Kilimani Police Station record statements," said IPOA lawyer David Tenge.

The lawyers asked the court to issue another order compelling the officers to appear before IPOA and give their accounts of events on the day Masai was killed.

“Until now the summons have not been honoured. Let them come and record statements with IPOA so that we take their witness accounts," Tenge added.

Manasses Mwangi, International Justice Mission lawyer, on his part said: “No police officer from those stations has recorded a statement. Please direct them to cooperate.”

However, lawyers representing the National Police Service told the court that most of the officers who were keeping records at the affected stations had since been transferred or left the service.

“In respect to the other police stations, the officers who were keeping records were either transferred or left the service. We are in the process of collating records, but we realised it will take longer," said NPS lawyer Antony Mwangi.

Earlier, Absa Bank Head of Security Joash Owanga took the witness stand and gave evidence on CCTV footage captured at one of the bank's branches in Nairobi's Central Business District on the evening of June 20, 2024.

Owanga told the court that he had not been questioned by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations or any other investigative agency over the footage.

“I was not interrogated by DCI or any other investigative agencies," he said.

The prosecution, however, told the court that the evidence already presented was sufficient to support a determination of the case, with only one witness remaining to produce a certificate.

“We believe what we have already presented to this court is relevant and sufficient for this court to make a determination. We only have one more witness left who is only coming to produce a certificate," prosecutor Jalson Makori noted.