Nairobi, Kenya – On June 7, Albert Ojwang was visiting his dad and mom in his house 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 cops on motorbikes arrived on the household’s compound.
Earlier than Ojwang might 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 dad and mom he had dedicated an abuse in opposition to a senior authorities official and was being arrested for publishing “false data” in regards to the man on social media.
Ojwang, a blogger and trainer, had no legal report and was only a month shy of his thirty first birthday. Nevertheless it was a celebration he wouldn’t stay to see as a result of lower than a day later he was lifeless.
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. Ultimately, two cops have been arrested.
Nonetheless, the general public anger that erupted after Ojwang’s loss of life 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 kidnapped and tortured.
Ojwang was seen by many as one more sufferer of a system attempting to silence these trying to carry the federal government to account.
And within the month since his loss of life, offended 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 youngster 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 youngster. 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 youngster might undergo faculty 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 house, his household stated.
Media reviews 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 once 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 loss of life.
“I believed we might come and clear up this subject. I actually 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 might speak with a lawyer to bail him,” Opiyo informed journalists the Sunday morning after his son’s loss of life, having simply discovered 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 grievance” that led to Ojwang’s arrest.
“The grievance 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 now we have 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 staff of 5 authorities pathologists additionally launched a report that exposed extreme head accidents, neck compression and a number of smooth tissue traumas. The reason for Ojwang’s loss of life, 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 advised 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 loss of life.
Subsequently, a number of folks have been arrested and investigated, together with two cops who’ve been charged.
Police Constable James Mukhwana, an officer arrested and arraigned in courtroom over Ojwang’s loss of life, informed IPOA investigators that he had acted on orders of his boss.
“It’s an order from the boss. You can’t decline an order out of your superior. In case you refuse, one thing might occur to you,” he stated in a press release to the IPOA. He added that his superior informed him: “I would like you to go to the cell and have a look at those that have been in remand for lengthy. Inform them there’s work I would like them to do. There’s a prisoner being introduced in. Deal with him.”
Mukhwana pleaded not responsible in courtroom however stated he was sorry in regards to the loss of life 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 loss of life, Kenyan rights organisations have condemned what they are saying is his “homicide”, calling the failure by authorities to carry accountable these answerable for police brutality as disrespect for human rights.
“The savage beating to loss of life of Albert Ojwang and the following 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 chief 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 drive 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 conventional chain of police command shouldn’t be answerable 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 troublesome to set off deep reforms to guard relatively 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 fallacious.
“We settle for and we acknowledge that inside our ranks, we’ve gotten it fallacious a number of instances,” he stated. However he added: “An act by one among us, and there have been a few them many instances over, mustn’t in any means 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
Most of the Kenyans reportedly focused by police and different “state brokers” have been younger, vocal contributors within the antigovernment protests that engulfed the capital and different cities final 12 months.
After Ojwang’s loss of life, 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 bought out of hand because the police used drive, 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 lifeless after a couple 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 in regards to the time Kenyan youth additionally marked a 12 months because the antigovernment protests started on June 25, 2024.
In keeping 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 lifeless in several components 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 in the course of the protests.
Dennis Njuguna, a scholar in his last 12 months of secondary faculty, was shot in Molo, Nakuru County, as he headed house from faculty for his mid-term break.
In Nairobi’s Roysambu space on the Thika Superhighway, police reportedly additionally shot lifeless 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 lifeless the subsequent morning.
Outdoors Nairobi in Olkalou, Nyandarua County, Brian Ndung’u was shot twice within the head, in keeping with 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 faculty training and discovered pictures so he might assist elevate his faculty charges along with their mom, who’s a each day wage labourer.
“He had gone out to do avenue pictures, which was his ardour, and that’s the place he bought shot. I used to be house and discovered about his taking pictures via Fb pictures that have been shared by pals,” Gichuki informed Al Jazeera.
Gichuki described her brother as a hardworking younger man who had loads of goals, however which have been lower quick by the bullet. “After the post-mortem, we couldn’t get additional details about the id 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 right away shock her with the information that her son had died.
“Ndung’u had been pronounced lifeless on arrival on the hospital, however this was information that carried weight for [our mother], and we wished to have her come house earlier than we might break it apart 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 when 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 was a wider name for Ruto to resign and likewise a second to recollect Ojwang.
4 days earlier, Ojwang’s physique had arrived at his house in Homa Bay for a nighttime vigil earlier than his burial the subsequent day.
When it arrived, offended 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 means again to Ojwang’s house along with his physique.
The subsequent day on the funeral, Anna Ngumi, a pal of Ojwang’s, informed mourners: “We’re not going to relaxation. We’re not 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 Nationwide Fee on Human Rights stated folks have been additionally kidnapped and arrested, including that it was “deeply involved by the latest surge in harassment and persecution of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) accused of organizing the continuing protests”.
‘Why did you kill my youngster?’
Inside his circles, Ojwang is claimed to have been a humble one that by no means quarrelled with anybody and as an alternative sought peace at any time when there was a battle.
His college pal Daniel Mushwahili stated Ojwang was modest and sociable.
“I knew this individual as a really cool and outgoing individual. He had many pals. … He was not an smug individual, 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 youngster and didn’t know the way the household would cope with out him.
“I had hope this youngster would help me in constructing a home. He even had a undertaking to plant greens, so we might promote and earn a living. Now I don’t know the place to start out with out him,” she stated.
“I really feel loads of ache as a result of there are individuals who got here house and took my son. … I really feel loads of ache as a result of he’s lifeless.”
In the meantime, because the investigation into Ojwang’s loss of life continues, his father says he misses his “reliable” son, who he relied on to maintain the household’s most precious 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 battle again. In his grief, he stated he now needs solutions from the police and particularly Deputy Inspector Normal Lagat, who made the grievance in opposition to Ojwang.
“Right this moment, my son is lifeless from accidents inflicted via beating. I want you to elucidate to me why you killed my youngster,” 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.”
