Police have told court that a power outage at the scene and surrounding buildings disrupted the retrieval of crucial CCTV footage on the day of the Ggaba daycare murders, leaving a gap in evidence during the ongoing trial of prime suspect Christopher Okello Onyum.
While presenting surveillance evidence on Okello’s movements, officers from the National CCTV Command and Control Centre said footage from the actual day of the killings could not be recovered due to the blackout.
Emmanuel Odong, a police officer attached to the centre, testified that although CCTV footage captured the suspect’s movements on April 1, no recording was available for April 2—the day the murders are alleged to have taken place.
According to the prosecution, Okello was seen on April 1 driving a Toyota RAV4 and later parking near a building housing Renewal Sacco along Jinja Road.
He is then said to have returned the following day on a motorcycle after the vehicle reportedly broke down at a Shell petrol station along Jinja Road.
Odong told court that the absence of footage on the day of the incident was due to a power outage at the daycare facility and neighbouring premises, which disrupted CCTV recording systems at the critical time.
“The suspect spent around twelve minutes at the day care facility and he is seen returning before he checks the car tyre from the co-driver side,” Odong told court while referencing the available footage.
However, the court did not receive any visual recordings capturing the actual commission of the alleged crime, creating gaps in the reconstruction of events on April 2.
The next available footage presented in court showed the suspect moving toward the road leading to the daycare centre, followed by images from a medical facility where injured children were taken for emergency treatment.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Sarah Awelo questioned the reliability of the CCTV identification, particularly whether the officer could definitively confirm the identity of the person in the footage.
“Were you able to recognize the face of the person in the video?” Awelo asked.
Despite raising questions over identification and evidential gaps, the defence did not further challenge the absence of footage from the actual crime scene.
Meanwhile, Jim Mutaka, the crime scene officer, has taken the stand as the prosecution’s fourteenth witness and is currently being led in his testimony as the trial continues.