Nairobi, Kenya – On June 7, Albert Ojwang was visiting his mother and father in his dwelling village of Kakoth in Kenya’s Homa Bay County. His mom had simply served him ugali (maize meal) and sukuma wiki (kale) for lunch when law enforcement officials on motorbikes arrived on the household’s compound.
Earlier than Ojwang may take a primary chunk, they arrested him, taking him to the native Mawego police station earlier than transporting him 350km (200 miles) to the Central Police Station within the capital, Nairobi.
The officers informed his mother and father he had dedicated an abuse in opposition to a senior authorities official and was being arrested for publishing “false data” concerning the man on social media.
Ojwang, a blogger and trainer, had no prison document and was only a month shy of his thirty first birthday. However it was a celebration he wouldn’t stay to see as a result of lower than a day later he was useless.
Police stated he died by suicide after “hitting his head” in opposition to the wall of a cell the place he was being held alone. However after an uproar from the general public and rights teams and additional investigation, the declare didn’t maintain up. Finally, two law enforcement officials have been arrested.
Nonetheless, the general public anger that erupted after Ojwang’s dying didn’t abate.
Kenyans have been on tenterhooks since mass antigovernment protests erupted throughout the nation a 12 months in the past – first in opposition to tax will increase in a finance invoice and later for the resignation of President William Ruto.
Within the time since, police have been accused of human rights abuses, together with allegations of presidency critics and activists being abducted and tortured.
Ojwang was seen by many as yet one more sufferer of a system making an attempt to silence these trying to carry the federal government to account.
And within the month since his dying, indignant protests have soared; state violence – and deaths – in opposition to civilians have continued; and younger folks appear decided to not give in.
‘False and malicious data’
Ojwang was the one baby of Eucabeth Ojwang and Meshack Opiyo, a retired quarry employee who had endured arduous labour for 20 years in Kilifi County to ship his son to high school.
Opiyo left the back-breaking job after Albert Ojwang had secured a job as a trainer, hoping his son would assist maintain the household after incomes a level in training.
“I had just one baby. There’s no daughter. There’s no different son after him,” he informed Al Jazeera. “I’ve suffered … whereas [working] in a quarry in Timbo for 20 years in order that my baby may undergo college and earn a level,” he added, saying Ojwang left behind a three-year-old son.
Ojwang was a promising trainer at Kituma Boys’ Secondary Faculty within the coastal Taita Taveta County, about 700km (435 miles) southeast of his childhood dwelling, his household stated.
Media experiences stated he was linked to an account on X that a number of folks used to publish information about Kenya’s authorities and politics. That’s what drew the eye of the authorities who got here to his father’s home that June afternoon.
That day, the arresting officers assured Opiyo his son could be protected after they took him into custody. In a single day, the daddy left for Nairobi – taking his land title deed with him to make use of as a surety to bail his son out as a result of he had no different cash. However the information he obtained was of his son’s dying.
“I assumed we’d come and remedy this challenge. I also have a title deed right here in my pocket that I had armed myself with, in order that if there have been going to be want for bail, we’d speak with a lawyer to bail him,” Opiyo informed journalists the Sunday morning after his son’s dying, having simply realized what had occurred to him.
Regardless of police claims that Ojwang died from self-inflicted accidents, his household and the general public have been sceptical. Human rights advocates and social media customers alleged foul play and an official cover-up by police.
As public strain mounted on the police to supply readability, Inspector Normal of Police Douglas Kanja confirmed that his deputy, Eliud Lagat, was the senior official who had made a “formal criticism” that led to Ojwang’s arrest.
“The criticism alleged that false and malicious data had been printed in opposition to him [Lagat] within the X – that’s, previously Twitter – social media platform. The publish claimed that he was concerned in corruption throughout the Nationwide Police Service,” Kanja stated earlier than Kenya’s Senate and the media on June 11.
At first, Kanja repeated to the media that Ojwang had hit his head on the wall, killing himself within the course of. However when questioned by lawmakers within the Senate, he admitted that was incorrect.
“Going by the report that we’ve gotten from IPOA [Independent Policing Oversight Authority], it isn’t true; he didn’t hit his head in opposition to the wall,” Kanja stated. “I tender my apology on behalf of the Nationwide Police Service due to that data.”
A group of 5 authorities pathologists additionally launched a report that exposed extreme head accidents, neck compression and a number of delicate tissue traumas. The reason for Ojwang’s dying, they decided, was a results of the accidents, not a self-inflicted incident.
In the meantime, Ann Wanjiku, the IPOA vice chairperson, informed senators that preliminary findings confirmed Ojwang was alone within the cell however two witnesses who have been within the subsequent cell stated they heard loud screams from the place Ojwang was held.
The IPOA report additionally urged there was foul play on the Nairobi Police Station as a result of CCTV cameras had been tampered with on Sunday morning after Ojwang’s dying.
Subsequently, a number of folks have been arrested and investigated, together with two law enforcement officials who’ve been charged.
Police Constable James Mukhwana, an officer arrested and arraigned in court docket over Ojwang’s dying, informed IPOA investigators that he had acted on orders of his boss.
“It’s an order from the boss. You can not decline an order out of your superior. For those who refuse, one thing could occur to you,” he stated in an announcement to the IPOA. He added that his superior informed him: “I need you to go to the cell and take a look at those that have been in remand for lengthy. Inform them there may be work I need them to do. There’s a prisoner being introduced in. Deal with him.”
Mukhwana pleaded not responsible in court docket however stated he was sorry concerning the dying in his assertion, including: “Ojwang was not meant to be killed however to be disciplined as per instruction.”
Who’s ‘sanctioning’ these killings?
Since Ojwang’s dying, Kenyan rights organisations have condemned what they are saying is his “homicide”, calling the failure by authorities to carry accountable these accountable for police brutality as disrespect for human rights.
“The savage beating to dying of Albert Ojwang and the next makes an attempt to cowl this up shatter as soon as extra the popularity of the management of the Kenyan Police Service,” Irungu Houghton, the manager director at Amnesty Worldwide Kenya, informed Al Jazeera.
“Amnesty Worldwide Kenya believes the failure to carry officers and their commanders accountable for 2 successive years of police brutality has bred the present impunity and disrespect for human rights,” he stated.
Houghton additionally known as for all these implicated to step apart and permit for investigations to happen.
“To revive public confidence and belief, all officers implicated have to be arrested. … Investigations have to be honest, thorough and swift. This second calls for no much less.”
Amnesty has beforehand known as out police abuses, together with “extreme pressure and violence throughout protests”, and reported abductions of civilians by safety forces. Rights teams stated greater than 90 folks have been forcibly disappeared since June 2024.
“Albert Ojwang’s killing in a police station comes after persistent repeated police denials that the traditional chain of police command shouldn’t be accountable for the 65 deaths and 90-plus enforced disappearances seen in 2024,” Houghton stated.
“Who’re the officers abducting and killing those that criticise the state? Who’s sanctioning or instructing these officers? Why has the federal government discovered it so tough to set off deep reforms to guard slightly than stifle Kenyans’ constitutional freedom of speech and meeting in addition to act on public coverage opinion?” he requested.
Talking in an interview with Kenya’s TV47 on June 24, the Nationwide Police Service Spokesperson Michael Muchiri acknowledged police brutality throughout the service, saying it was unsuitable.
“We settle for and we acknowledge that inside our ranks, we’ve gotten it unsuitable a number of occasions,” he stated. However he added: “An act by certainly one of us, and there have been a few them many occasions over, shouldn’t in any approach be a mirrored image of the entire organisation.”
Al Jazeera reached out to Deputy Inspector Normal of Police Lagat to touch upon the allegations in opposition to him, however he didn’t reply.
Shot at protests
Lots of the Kenyans reportedly focused by police and different “state brokers” have been younger, vocal members within the antigovernment protests that engulfed the capital and different cities final 12 months.
After Ojwang’s dying, the Gen Z protesters as soon as once more erupted in anger.
On June 17, they staged an indication in Nairobi to demand justice for his or her fallen comrade. Issues quickly received out of hand because the police used pressure, leading to fatalities among the many younger folks.
Boniface Kariuki, a masks vendor in Nairobi, was caught between the police and protesters, and the police fired a rubber bullet at his head at shut vary, sending him to an intensive care unit on the Kenyatta Nationwide Hospital. He was declared mind useless after a number of days and died on June 30.
An post-mortem report launched on Thursday stated Kariuki “died from extreme head accidents attributable to a single close-range gunshot”. It additional revealed that 4 bullet fragments remained lodged in his mind.
Two officers who had been caught on digital camera firing the lethal bullet have been charged.
This got here concerning the time Kenyan youth additionally marked a 12 months for the reason that antigovernment protests started on June 25, 2024.
In step with the anniversary, many younger folks throughout the nation took to the streets to precise their anger in opposition to the federal government.
These protests additionally grew to become violent. Many companies have been destroyed in Nairobi, and a few police stations elsewhere have been set ablaze.
That very same day, three 17-year-olds, amongst others, have been shot useless in several elements of the nation. Whereas the police haven’t commented on the deaths, the victims’ households and rights teams say all three have been killed in crossfire throughout the protests.
Dennis Njuguna, a scholar in his last 12 months of secondary college, was shot in Molo, Nakuru County, as he headed dwelling from college for his mid-term break.
In Nairobi’s Roysambu space on the Thika Superhighway, police reportedly additionally shot useless Elijah Muthoka, whose mom stated he had gone to a tailor however didn’t come again. That night, she would obtain the information that he was hospitalised on the close by Uhai Neema Hospital. He was then transferred to the Kenyatta Nationwide Hospital and pronounced useless the subsequent morning.
Outdoors Nairobi in Olkalou, Nyandarua County, Brian Ndung’u was shot twice within the head, in response to an post-mortem report launched by pathologists on the JM Kariuki County Referral Hospital. Margaret Gichuki, Ndung’u’s sister, stated her brother had simply accomplished his secondary college training and realized images so he may assist elevate his school charges along with their mom, who’s a every day wage labourer.
“He had gone out to do avenue images, which was his ardour, and that’s the place he received shot. I used to be dwelling and realized about his capturing via Fb photographs that have been shared by pals,” Gichuki informed Al Jazeera.
Gichuki described her brother as a hardworking younger man who had a whole lot of desires, however which have been lower brief by the bullet. “After the post-mortem, we couldn’t get additional details about the identification of the bullet that was faraway from his head, because the police took it,” she stated, explaining that one bullet was fragmented in his mind whereas one other was eliminated by docs and handed to the police throughout post-mortem.
Along with their cousin Margaret Wanjiku, Gichuki then known as to tell their mom that Ndung’u was lacking – not wanting to instantly shock her with the information that her son had died.
“Ndung’u had been pronounced useless on arrival on the hospital, however this was information that carried weight for [our mother], and we needed to have her come dwelling earlier than we may break it aside from inform her over the cellphone,” Wanjiku stated.
‘Surge’ in harassment
Lower than two weeks after that, Kenyans once more took to the streets in demonstrations that after once more turned lethal.
On Monday, they rallied for “Saba Saba” which means “Seven Seven” in Kiswahili to mark the date on July 7, 1990, when folks demanded a return to multiparty democracy after years of rule by then-President Daniel arap Moi.
This 12 months, the protest became a wider name for Ruto to resign and in addition a second to recollect Ojwang.
4 days earlier, Ojwang’s physique had arrived at his dwelling in Homa Bay for a nighttime vigil earlier than his burial the subsequent day.
When it arrived, indignant youth took maintain of the coffin and marched with it to the Mawego police station, the place he was final seen alive earlier than he was taken to Nairobi.
On the station, the youth set the station ablaze earlier than making their approach again to Ojwang’s dwelling along with his physique.
The subsequent day on the funeral, Anna Ngumi, a good friend of Ojwang’s, informed mourners: “We aren’t going to relaxation. We aren’t going to relaxation till justice is completed. Keep in mind we’re nonetheless celebrating Seven Seven right here. We’ll do Seven Seven for Albert Ojwang.”
However on the rallies, police have been as soon as once more heavy-handed. In Nairobi, they fired stay rounds and water cannon on the protesters. Eleven folks have been killed.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights stated folks have been additionally kidnapped and arrested, including that it was “deeply involved by the current surge in harassment and persecution of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) accused of organizing the continuing protests”.
‘Why did you kill my baby?’
Inside his circles, Ojwang is claimed to have been a humble one who by no means quarrelled with anybody and as an alternative sought peace every time there was a battle.
His college good friend Daniel Mushwahili stated Ojwang was modest and sociable.
“I knew this particular person as a really cool and outgoing particular person. He had many pals. … He was not an smug particular person, not a bully, and didn’t even take part in harassing anyone,” Mushwahili stated. He was “an individual who seeks peace”.
Ojwang’s mom Eucabeth, talking at a reception by comic Eric Omondi, lamented her son’s killing, saying she had misplaced her solely baby and didn’t understand how the household would cope with out him.
“I had hope this baby would help me in constructing a home. He even had a mission to plant greens, so we may promote and earn money. Now I don’t know the place to start out with out him,” she stated.
“I really feel a whole lot of ache as a result of there are individuals who got here dwelling and took my son. … I really feel a whole lot of ache as a result of he’s useless.”
In the meantime, because the investigation into Ojwang’s dying continues, his father says he misses his “reliable” son, who he relied on to maintain the household’s most dear issues, even with the little that they had.
Opiyo stated that when the officers got here to their home to arrest his son, they noticed how little the household had and knew they’d not combat again. In his grief, he stated he now needs solutions from the police and particularly Deputy Inspector Normal Lagat, who made the criticism in opposition to Ojwang.
“At the moment, my son is useless from accidents inflicted via beating. I would like you to clarify to me why you killed my baby,” Opiyo stated.
“My son didn’t die in an accident or in conflict. He died in silence within the fingers of those that have been supposed to guard him.”
