Police armoury officer defends firearms records in Rex Masai murder case
Officer Fredrick Okapesi, on Monday, said all firearms were issued strictly according to procedure, and no officer was allowed to take a weapon without signing for it.
A senior police officer in charge of the armoury at the Nairobi Central Police Station has dismissed claims of a cover-up in the handling of firearms during last year's anti-government protests linked to the fatal shooting of Rex Masai.
Officer Fredrick Okapesi, on Monday, said all firearms were issued strictly according to procedure, and no officer was allowed to take a weapon without signing for it.
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He acknowledged minor inconsistencies in the station's firearms register but insisted the records remained credible.
Okapesi was testifying before Inquest trial magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo and explained that an oversight had occurred in the case of Corporal Githinji, where he initially thought he had erased the officer's signature but later realised it still appeared.
He maintained that such errors were not deliberate, noting that registers are filled manually and may contain mistakes corrected through permissible methods such as striking out or applying a blackwash.
He further addressed claims surrounding Constable Benson Kamau, who came under intense online scrutiny after being accused on social media of shooting a protester.
"People stormed his Facebook account. He came to me and asked, Afande, tufanye nini?" the officer testified, adding that Kamau was forced to deactivate his account due to public backlash.
On Constable Isaiah Murangiri, the witness confirmed that records showed he was issued a firearm on June 20, 21, and 22 last year, but not on June 18 as had been suggested.
He clarified that Murangiri had been assigned a launcher for rubber bullets and tear gas canisters—tools used for crowd control—and not live ammunition.
"The arms register presented in court for that week is accurate," he told the court, adding that the protests involved several police stations and not just Central Police.
Masai was shot and killed during demonstrations in Nairobi on June 20, 2024. The hearing continues.
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