NAIROBI — Protests erupted in the Kenyan capital Thursday over the death of a blogger in police custody, reigniting long-standing public anger over police brutality.
Albert Ojwang, 30, was arrested by detectives on Friday at his home in western Kenya, accused of defaming a top police official on social media. He was transported nearly 200 miles to Nairobi and put in a holding cell; on Sunday, he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
What happened in the intervening hours is still unclear. Police first said he was found unconscious in his cell during a routine visit. But Bernard Midia, a forensic pathologist who examined the body, reported “serious injuries to the head … features of neck compression,” as well as “multiple soft-tissue injuries.”
“These were wounds inflicted from an external source, pointing towards assault,” he told reporters Tuesday. Appearing before the Senate on Wednesday, Inspector General Douglas Kanja retracted the earlier police statement and said an investigation was ongoing.
Also Wednesday, Kenyan President William Ruto said in a statement that “this tragic occurrence, at the hands of the police, is heartbreaking and unacceptable.”
At least 60 people were killed last year during a crackdown by security forces on protests over contentious tax legislation, the youngest a 12-year-old boy who was shot in the back. On Thursday, hundreds of demonstrators returned to the streets; police fired tear gas at the crowds as a helicopter hovered overhead, and at least two cars were set on fire.
“The savage beating to death of Albert Ojwang and the subsequent attempts to cover this up shatters once more the reputation of the leadership of the Kenyan Police Service,” said Irungu Houghton, the Kenya executive director for Amnesty International. “To restore public confidence and trust, all officers implicated must be arrested.”
Ojwang’s last days
As an only child, Ojwang was his father’s hope in life. Meshack Ojwang said his son had recently quit his job as a high school teacher because of low pay and had planned to get into the charcoal business.
“He was trustworthy,” Meshack told reporters Tuesday. “He never got into disagreements or had ever been arrested.”
In his spare time, Ojwang blogged on X and Facebook about political and social issues, echoing the frustrations of many young Kenyans disillusioned by corruption and economic stagnation. In recent weeks he had focused his ire on Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat, calling him part of the “mafia police” and alleging he was illegally profiting from his position.
Ojwang was settling down for lunch on Friday when three motorbikes carrying two men each drove up, his father said. One of the men identified himself as a police officer and said Ojwang was being arrested for “insulting their boss.” He was put in a car and taken to a local station before being moved to Nairobi.
On Saturday night, Meshack had what would be his final phone call with his son, who told him to come to the police station the next morning. He arrived there at 7 a.m., he said, hoping to bail him out; after hours of waiting, he was told his son had died.
“It was shocking,” Meshack said, “to think that he was in a prison cell alone, held as a criminal.”
Growing anger
Ojwang’s death comes nearly a year after Kenya was paralyzed by nationwide protests, which culminated in demonstrators storming the Parliament building in Nairobi.
Though the protests were initially sparked by a tax bill that raised the price of basic goods, the heavy-handed response by Kenyan police and soldiers set off more far-reaching fury over state violence and a lack of accountability.
In an effort to restore calm, Ruto fired almost his entire cabinet and canceled a controversial project with an Indian company to overhaul the Nairobi airport. This year, hoping to further ease domestic tensions, Ruto brought members of the opposition into his cabinet, but it left some activists feeling even more isolated.
“To have the opposition in government basically leaves the activists as the official opposition,” said Happy Olal, a human rights activist and head of the Social Justice Centers in Kenya. “We are on our own, and it’s becoming more dangerous.”
In Washington, Kenya is viewed as a haven of stability in a region roiled by turmoil. To the north, the Sahel has been wracked by coups and Islamist insurgencies. The Horn of Africa is gripped by civil conflict and mounting humanitarian crises.
Last year, Ruto was feted at the White House in the first state visit by an African leader since 2008, and Washington has recently funded the deployment of Kenyan troops to Haiti to counter gang violence.
Since 2011, the United States has also provided support for Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), set up to investigate cases of police misconduct. A recent report from the IPOA said it had launched more than 10,000 investigations since its inception, but only 33 officers had been convicted of wrongdoing.
“The problem is much broader, and informed by a culture of impunity,” said Evelyne Asaala, a professor of criminal law at the University of Nairobi. “If a state officer knows they can get away with a crime, then why would they not do it?”
Calls for change
Missing Voices, a coalition of Kenyan human rights organizations, has documented 970 cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances since 2019, including 159 cases last year.
After Ojwang’s death, there are renewed calls for transparency and accountability.
“Who is sanctioning or instructing these officers?” said Houghton, of Amnesty International. “Who are the officers abducting and killing those who criticize the state?”
Kenya’s police reform working group has called for Lagat, the police official Ojwang criticized online, to step aside and recuse himself from the investigation. Lagat has made no public comment.
“Kenya has been the voice of reason in the region, a pacesetter in democracy and human rights,” Asaala said. “It has to pull itself back together.”
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