The inquest into the killing of Rex Masai during youth-led protests more than two years ago has been formally closed, after 30 witnesses testified and the prosecution presented CCTV footage and photographic evidence relating to his death.
Masai was shot dead in Nairobi late in the evening of June 20, 2024, as protesters rejected the Finance Bill, 2024, and died from excessive bleeding and became one of the defining figures of the wider Gen-Z-led demonstrations that swept the country that year.
State Counsel Jalson Makori informed the court that the prosecution had completed calling its witnesses, bringing the evidentiary phase of the inquest to a close. Delivering his ruling, the magistrate said: “I have taken into account the submissions by the parties and I mark the inquest closed.”
The matter will next be mentioned on September 24, 2026, for directions on the filing of submissions ahead of the final ruling.
Among the last pieces of evidence presented was a forensic examination of video footage recorded by Dandora-based community human rights defender Brian James Omondi, known as Alaman, which reportedly showed a plain-clothes officer on Mama Ngina Street firing twice at fleeing protesters.
Investigators told the court the footage was directly relevant to establishing the circumstances of Masai’s death. The recording was received by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) on July 31 and subjected to forensic examination by Joshua Mutua, who testified as the inquest’s final witness.
Mutua told the court the footage was internally consistent in its temporal sequence and visual continuity, was recorded from about 7.18pm on June 20, 2024, and ran for approximately one minute.
He said no technical indications of intentional insertion, deletion, duplication or rearrangement of the video content were identified during his examination. The evidence remains subject to the magistrate’s eventual determination, to be made after considering all the evidence and submissions filed by the parties.
The inquest had earlier been extended after the National Police Service (NPS) sought to call additional witnesses, following IPOA’s own closure of its case. The NPS was permitted to summon representatives from the Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre (IC3), Absa Bank, International Life House and Bliss Hospital, as well as one witness each from the Kamukunji, Kilimani, Parliament and Kenyatta International Convention Centre police stations, to produce arms movement registers covering June 20, 2024.
During the hearing, IPOA’s lead investigator told the court that investigations into Masai’s shooting had uncovered attempts to obstruct the probe, including misleading information provided by key police officers.
Mr Nyatete testified that Police Constable Isaiah Murangiri Ndumba, a key suspect in the shooting, had given investigators a cellphone number belonging to another person. IPOA said it subsequently retrieved Ndumba’s actual registered phone numbers directly from Safaricom.
Masai’s family, represented by lawyer David Mwangi, said they had left the matter in the court’s hands to deliver justice.
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