By: Rhoda Bogeta
A homicide officer has recounted to the High Court how a series of CCTV recordings pieced together the movements of four women said to have vanished from Eastleigh in late October 2024.
Corporal Lawrence Kamau testified before Lady Justice Margaret Muigai that he joined the investigation on October 24, 2024, after being tasked with helping reconstruct the timelines surrounding the disappearance of the women.
He told the court that, together with two other investigators, he moved across several neighbourhoods between October 24 and November 6, collecting surveillance footage from Eastleigh, Athi River, Parklands and Lavington.
According to his testimony, the videos consistently captured a grey vehicle believed to have been used during the nights the women went missing.
Footage from Albeit Building in Eastleigh showed one of the women, dressed in black, accessing the lift and later heading towards a grey car parked outside on October 21.
The court heard that later the same night, cameras at Total Energies Athi River captured a similar vehicle arriving shortly before midnight, stopping for service and driving away.
Another set of recordings from the early hours of October 22 showed the same grey car returning to Eastleigh, where two women ,one in blue attire and another in a black hooded sweater , appeared to hesitate before getting inside.
Kamau said the trail continued to Valley View Apartments in Parklands, with the vehicle arriving at around 3:28am, and later to AD Site Limited on 6th Avenue. At the latter location, cameras recorded what investigators suspected to be a body on the ground as the vehicle reversed. Police later detected bloodstains at the spot.
The court also heard that CCTV from Valley Heights Apartments in Lavington captured a woman dressed in maroon leaving the premises on October 29 and later shopping at a nearby supermarket. Two days later, a man was filmed leaving the same apartment block carrying two bags, one resembling hers.
During cross-examination, Kamau acknowledged that the footage had several shortcomings, including poor lighting, long-distance angles and the absence of clear identification of the car’s number plate or its driver.
Defence lawyers challenged his narration of events at Valley Heights, arguing that he was not assigned to pursue matters relating to the fourth woman, Deka Abdi Noor.
Prosecutors, however, maintained that the scenes were part of an unbroken investigative trail and that Deka was still alive when Kamau began his role.
The accused, Hashim Dagane, has denied killing Dahabo Daud Said, Amina Dhahir, Musayba Abdi Mohammed and Deka Abdi Noor between October 21 and 30, 2024.
The case will be mentioned again on March 26, 2026.
