Police Officer Under Scrutiny For Mishandling CCTV Footage
A warrant for arrest has been issued against a police officer in the ongoing inquest into the 2019 Likoni ferry disaster.
The officer was scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, July 24, to explain the alleged misuse of critical CCTV footage.
Prosecutors say the petition has significant evidence in the case that killed Mariam Kigenda, 35, and her four-year-old daughter, Amanda Mutheu.
The inquest has been clouded by criticism over how the CCTV evidence was handled, hindering efforts to learn the facts about the fatal incident.
Arrest Order In Mombasa Ferry Case:
— NTV Kenya (@ntvkenya) July 24, 2025
Court has issued a warrant of arrest against a police officer who initially investigated the 2019 Likoni ferry tragedy.
A woman and her daughter died after their vehicle plunged into the Indian Ocean.#NTVTonight @MichelleNgele_ @kevinmutai_ pic.twitter.com/4qI9d5k6CB
Following the officer’s failure to appear in court, Chief Magistrate Alex Ithuku issued the warrant, citing the officer as a major person of interest in the case.
The officer in question allegedly returned the CCTV footage to Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) without following the proper chain of custody procedures, raising concerns about evidence tampering.
According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), the film shown in court was fragmented and did not capture the entire sequence of events that led to the vehicle’s deadly tumble into the water.
A Chief Inspector stated that the entire tape, separated into three portions, remained in KFS’s hands.
Because the footage was incomplete, prosecutors described the material presented in court as a hindrance to the investigation and an obstruction of justice.
A DCI officer also stated that the officer in charge of the footage’s custody was initially supposed to ensure that the full, unedited version was saved for investigations, but failed to do so.
His decision to return the footage to KFS was deemed illegal and violated protocols.
KFS and the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) supported the prosecution’s motion for additional action, urging the court to compel the officer to give an affidavit detailing the film handover.
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The two agencies also demanded that the court compel the officer to explain whether any manipulation occurred during the handover to KFS.
A week earlier, Chief Magistrate Ithuku ordered the Kenya Ferry Services (KFS) CEO, the head of the Likoni Sub-county Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and a senior investigating officer to appear in court on July 24.
In the years since the tragedy, more information has emerged, with two KFS officers confessing in 2022 that the ferry that killed Kigenda and her daughter was malfunctioning.
A brief story of Mariam and Amanda who perished in Likoni Ferry
— Wolf (@thee_hoof) December 4, 2023
🧵 pic.twitter.com/2G5cKxKJzP
In 2022, an engineer from KFS informed Mombasa Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku that the damaged prow was entirely to blame for the ferry’s lack of buoyancy.
Police Officer Under Scrutiny For Mishandling CCTV Footage
