Officer confesses not signing for pistol issued to him during June 2024 protests
Contradictions have emerged on the issuance and records captured in a register on firearms issued by the chief armourer to police officers at the Nairobi Central Police Station during the anti-Finance Bill protests in June 2024.
During the ongoing inquest before Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, the court heard and was shown that there were alterations made in the armourer register between June 18 to June 20, 2024.
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It emerged that there was a name of an officer which was entered, erased with white-wash and another one written, an unsigned entry with one officer signing against another officer’s details.
Police Constable Geoffrey Mbae Murangiri, Simon Waweru, and Corporal Martin Kithinji acknowledged mistakes identified in the register by the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).
Constable Waweru, deployed as an undercover officer along River Road, confessed in court that even though he was issued a Jericho pistol on June 19, 2024, he did not sign as per the rules of the armoury.
“When I took it, I did not sign,” Waweru told the court.
Notably, the register shows that Corporal Kithinji signed against Waweru’s details after he had picked the pistol, which had 15 rounds of ammunition.
Asked whether the register could have been altered, Waweru said that there were no alterations made.
Law Society of Kenya (LSK) David Mwangi asked Waweru whether he returned the firearm that he had not signed for. In his response, he said he did.
“Yes, I returned the pistol the same day, and the armourer signed that I had the firearm he had issued me with,” Waweru responded.
According to lawyer Mwangi, the register was manipulated, citing that someone else’s name was overlaid with Waweru’s, and it does not tell who actually carried the pistol.
Further, he questioned whether the court of law was supposed to trust a flawed register.
Waweru also informed the court that he was not present when the white-wash was used to rectify the error in the register.
Meanwhile, Kithinji told the court that on June 19, 2024, upon reporting to work, he was also issued a Jericho pistol with 15 rounds of ammunition and was recorded in the armoury register.
However, the DPP pointed out that Kithinji’s number in the register had some discrepancies, where the one displayed in court shows 730997, while he stated that his number is 220997.
The officer told the court that he could not clearly see the displayed number, prompting the court to suggest he goes near the screen and check it closely, after which he insisted he still could not see the number.
” My force number in the manual register is correct, but I cannot see clearly on the screen; I cannot see anything,” Kithinji told the court.
Further, the officer told the court that there was an error by the armourer, who he says wrote his name twice, on two different pages, then tried to correct it with a white-wash.
Kithinji further confirmed before the court that there was no gun that was used within the Central Business District (CBD) on June 18, 19, and 20, 2024, adding that unless there were criminals with guns.
“All the officers under me (the undercover officers) did not use firearms during the June 2024 protests,” Kithinji told the court.
The chief armourer is expected to testify on July 29, 2025.
