Senior Superintendent Alex Mdindi Mwandawiro of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations told a Nairobi court that the bullet fragment taken for examination after the death of 29-year-old protester Rex Masai was not from any of the pistols presented to him for testing.
He explained that the damaged jacket submitted by IPOA in July 2024 was consistent with a live rifle round and not with rubber ammunition as earlier claimed.
According to him, the fragment weighed 0.38 grams and bore right-hand twist engravings with a large engraved area, although the bullet’s core was missing.
He ruled out the pistols handed in from DCI Central Police Station, stating that they were of a different calibre and could not have discharged the fatal shot. Instead, he said the fragment matched rifles such as the Russian AK-1, the Israeli Galil, or Kenya’s Chalbi rifle.
However, he admitted under cross-examination that his findings were inconclusive since none of those rifles had actually been submitted for testing. His duty, he stressed, was only to examine what IPOA had provided, and in this case, the pistols received were not the source of the shot that killed Masai.
The court also heard that the officer had been supplied with three pistols for analysis, but one went missing. This raised further questions about the handling of key exhibits in the case. Even more striking was his disclosure that the fragment could only have come from a live round, a statement that directly contradicted earlier testimonies that insisted no live ammunition was fired during the protests.
His words left the court with more uncertainty over whether the public had been told the truth about the use of live bullets during the demonstrations.
When asked about his final conclusion, Mwandawiro stated that the bullet fragment was part of a rifled bullet, not rubber as some accounts had suggested. This testimony opened new doubts about the conduct of police during the protests and the level of transparency in the investigation. For the family of Rex Masai, the inconsistencies only deepened their search for justice.
The inquest has now shifted focus on accountability, as the disappearance of an exhibit and the mismatch between firearms tested and the actual bullet fragment continue to raise concerns.
The hearing before trial magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo has shown how much remains unclear in this case. While experts have ruled out the pistols tested, no conclusive weapon has been linked to the fatal shooting.
This leaves the big question unanswered which gun fired the shot that killed Rex Masai, and why has it not been submitted for examination? Until those answers come, the inquest will remain clouded in doubt, with the truth still out of reach for the family and the public.
