The murder case of Rex Masai has taken a dramatic turn after a witness gave new information in court linking Police Constable Isaiah Murangiri to the scene of the shooting.
During the court session held on Tuesday, July 29, a photojournalist testified and clearly stated that Murangiri was present during the 2024 anti-Finance Bill protests, where Rex Masai was shot.
This testimony went against Murangiri’s earlier claims that he was not on duty and nowhere near the protest areas when the incident occurred.
According to the witness, who is a professional photojournalist, he had observed and followed Murangiri for two days during the protests.
He told the court that Murangiri’s behaviour had caught his attention, especially the way the officer was using force against protesters and even journalists.
The journalist accused Murangiri of being violent and said that this prompted him to closely monitor and document his actions.
He presented several photographs in court showing Murangiri dressed in plain clothes, shooting tear gas, arresting people, and even wearing a bracelet that had the name “Izoo,” which is a short form of his full name, Isaiah.
These photographs and videos directly challenged Murangiri’s earlier denial that he was off-duty during the protests.
The evidence not only showed his presence at the protests but also indicated that he was actively involved in controlling and confronting the protesters.
This added more weight to the prosecution’s case. When Murangiri appeared in court earlier on Wednesday, July 16, he dismissed the CCTV and other video evidence presented against him.
He claimed that the man seen in the footage, wearing a blue shirt, grey trousers, and carrying a walkie-talkie, was not him.
When asked directly by the court whether he was the person in the footage, Murangiri replied, “No, Your Honour, that is not me.” He also denied being anywhere close to the scene where the shooting happened, even though cell phone data placed him at the location during the same time.
Rex Masai lost his life after being shot during one of the protest events. The shooting happened at around 7 pm and was captured on video. In the video, a plain-clothed officer believed to be Murangiri is seen firing a weapon at protesters.
After Rex was shot, some of his fellow protesters rushed him to a medical facility in Nairobi’s Central Business District. Unfortunately, he was pronounced dead soon after arriving.
A quick medical examination showed that Rex had been hit by a bullet in his thigh. Later, a full post-mortem confirmed that Rex died because of too much bleeding from the wound.
With the latest court testimony and growing pile of evidence, questions now remain on whether justice will finally be served in the case of the young protester’s death.
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