The CCTV footage that was to shed light on the mysterious death of marathoner Samuel Wanjiru turned to be a blank CD when it was played in court on Tuesday.
While giving his testimony in the inquest, the investigating officer produced a CD to be played in court. But it was blank and did not have any data or video for the court to watch.
Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi asked the officer why he didn’t check the content of the CD before bringing it to court.
“You did not check if the CD was playing before you brought it to court ?” Andayi asked.
The officer said the CD was not the original disk that was taken from Wanjiru’s home but it was a duplicate.
The court heard that the original CCTV footage was with the former investigations officer who is now based in Eldoret.
Andayi gave the officer two weeks to bring the original CCTV footage to court as evidence. It is alleged to have recorded events of the fateful night leading to Wanjiru's death.
Wanjiru is alleged to have fallen off his balcony on May 11, 2011, at his Nyahururu home.
Last year, Andayi took police to task over the quality of the photographs of Wanjiru’s body. He wanted to know why there were dark shadows on the photos and why they were not telling a story about death.
The police officer told the court that he did not use a digital camera to take the pictures claiming that the flash of the camera used did not produce sharp photographs.
So far, Wanjiru's widow, mother and a woman who was with him on the fateful day have testified in the inquest.
The state intends to call four more witnesses. The case will be mentioned on November 17 when the police are expected to play the original CCTV footage.
Edited by P.O
