COP ACCUSED OF KILLING REX PLEADS INNOCENT DESPITE PALPABLE EVIDENCES.

A police officer accused of shooting protester Rex Masai during the anti-Finance Bill demonstrations last year has rejected photo evidence linking him to the killing, claiming he is not the man seen in the images.

Constable Isaiah Murangiri Ndumba, the main suspect in the high-profile case, appeared before Milimani Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo on Wednesday, where he strongly denied being the officer pictured in several images presented by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

Using a projector, IPOA displayed photos said to have been taken during the June 20, 2024 protests. According to the oversight body, the man in the pictures matched Murangiri’s facial features and wore a distinct wristband. But Murangiri dismissed the claims, saying, “I’m not the one in those photos.”

He told the court that on June 18—two days before the shooting—he was not on duty, having sought time off to care for his sick child. IPOA had presented photos allegedly from both June 18 and June 20 showing the same man wearing a blue shirt, black cap, blue trousers, and black shoes, and holding what appeared to be a police walkie-talkie.

Murangiri insisted that he does not recognize the person in the images, nor does he own the wristband shown. He further denied having a black birthmark beneath his left ear, which IPOA and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) lawyer David Mwangi pointed to as a possible identifying mark.

“Please face the court. Beneath your left ear, do you know of any spotting on your face? Please touch the bottom of it,” Mwangi asked during cross-examination. The officer responded that he was not aware of any such mark and had never noticed one. Mwangi then suggested he confirm for himself with a mirror.

The hearing also revealed that Murangiri was on duty on June 20, the day Rex Masai was shot, but he told the court he had been assigned to the KICC area and was in plain clothes. He explained that all officers posted to the Central Business District that day, whether in uniform or not, had been briefed at KICC ahead of the protests.

He added that he was part of a special operations team referred to as Alpha Mike, which received direct instructions from the Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD), not the OCS of Central Police Station.

Despite the image evidence and IPOA’s assertions, Murangiri stood his ground, maintaining that he was not the person in the pictures. He further made a sarcastic remark stating that Rex was most probably killed by criminals.

The unfolding has elicited rage from netizens with some muttering insults, meanwhile the court is yet to declare the final fate , already being faced with a stalemate of a suspect unequivocally dismissing such plausible evidences.