Safaricom Data Places Accused Suspect in Nairobi CBD the Day Rex Maasai Died

Safaricom PLC manager Zachary Mburu kirogoi before Milimani law courts in Rex Masai's inquest on September 15,2025

Mobile phone data from Safaricom has placed Isaiah Murangiri, one of the accused in a firearms case, within Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD) last June, contradicting his claim that he had abandoned the line a year earlier.

The revelation came on Monday at Milimani Law Courts before Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo.

Safaricom senior manager Zachary Kirogoi Mburu told the court that two court orders compelled the firm to release call data and location details for numbers registered under Murangiri, Benson Kamau, and Michael Oginga Okello.

The records showed the numbers were active between June 18 and 20, 2024, with signals traced to network masts at Kencom, Wincer House, Accra House, St. Ellis, KBC Towers, and Hill Town.

Rex Maasai.

Explaining mobile coverage, Mburu said,

“The subscriber must be within the coverage radius and the site that is available will pick it. Murangiri may not have moved, but Kencom still captured his signal.” He noted that in Nairobi’s CBD, the network radius is roughly five kilometres, meaning a device can be recorded even with minimal movement.

Prosecutors said the data undermined Murangiri’s testimony, suggesting he was present in the city centre during the period under probe.

Separately, Senior Superintendent Alex Mudindi Mwandawiro, a ballistic expert from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, presented findings from a damaged bullet jacket submitted by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

He also identified the 0.83-gram fragment as part of a 5.56mm rifle round, but said it had bent and broken after impact.

“The jacket was from live ammunition, but the bullet core was missing. None of the firearms presented matched,” he said.

Mwandawiro added that the Ceska F7226 pistol referenced in IPOA’s memo was absent, and rifles used by police and wildlife officers were of different calibres, leaving the findings inconclusive.

The matter will resume on September 25, 2025, when more witnesses are expected to testify.