Nairobi, Kenya – On June 7, Albert Ojwang was visiting his mother and father 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 law enforcement officials on motorbikes arrived on the household’s compound.
Earlier than Ojwang might take a primary chew, 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” in regards to the man on social media.
Ojwang, a blogger and instructor, had no legal document and was only a month shy of his thirty first birthday. Nevertheless it was a celebration he wouldn’t dwell to see as a result of lower than a day later he was useless.
Police mentioned 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 had 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 attempting 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 individuals 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 onerous labour for 20 years in Kilifi County to ship his son to highschool.
Opiyo left the back-breaking job after Albert Ojwang had secured a job as a instructor, hoping his son would assist maintain the household after incomes a level in schooling.
“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 instructor at Kituma Boys’ Secondary College within the coastal Taita Taveta County, about 700km (435 miles) southeast of his childhood house, his household mentioned.
Media studies mentioned he was linked to an account on X that a number of individuals 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 acquired was of his son’s dying.
“I assumed we’d come and resolve 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 had been sceptical. Human rights advocates and social media customers alleged foul play and an official cover-up by police.
As public stress mounted on the police to supply readability, Inspector Common 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 put up claimed that he was concerned in corruption inside the Nationwide Police Service,” Kanja mentioned 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 have now gotten from IPOA [Independent Policing Oversight Authority], it isn’t true; he didn’t hit his head in opposition to the wall,” Kanja mentioned. “I tender my apology on behalf of the Nationwide Police Service due to that data.”
A crew of 5 authorities pathologists additionally launched a report that exposed extreme head accidents, neck compression and a number of comfortable 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 had been within the subsequent cell mentioned they heard loud screams from the place Ojwang was held.
The IPOA report additionally prompt 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 individuals had 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’t decline an order out of your superior. If you happen to refuse, one thing might occur to you,” he mentioned 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’s work I need them to do. There’s a prisoner being introduced in. Maintain him.”
Mukhwana pleaded not responsible in court docket however mentioned he was sorry in regards to 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 liable 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 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 mentioned.
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 mentioned greater than 90 individuals 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 will not be liable for the 65 deaths and 90-plus enforced disappearances seen in 2024,” Houghton mentioned.
“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 fairly 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 inside the service, saying it was improper.
“We settle for and we acknowledge that inside our ranks, we’ve gotten it improper a number of instances,” he mentioned. However he added: “An act by one in all us, and there have been a few them many instances over, shouldn’t in any manner be a mirrored image of the entire organisation.”
Al Jazeera reached out to Deputy Inspector Common 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” had been younger, vocal contributors 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 obtained out of hand because the police used pressure, leading to fatalities among the many younger individuals.
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 mentioned Kariuki “died from extreme head accidents brought on by 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.
Consistent with the anniversary, many younger individuals 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 had been destroyed in Nairobi, and a few police stations elsewhere had been set ablaze.
That very same day, three 17-year-olds, amongst others, had been shot useless in numerous components of the nation. Whereas the police haven’t commented on the deaths, the victims’ households and rights teams say all three had been killed in crossfire through the protests.
Dennis Njuguna, a pupil in his remaining 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 useless Elijah Muthoka, whose mom mentioned 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 following morning.
Exterior Nairobi in Olkalou, Nyandarua County, Brian Ndung’u was shot twice within the head, based on an post-mortem report launched by pathologists on the JM Kariuki County Referral Hospital. Margaret Gichuki, Ndung’u’s sister, mentioned her brother had simply accomplished his secondary faculty schooling and realized pictures so he might assist elevate his school charges along with their mom, who’s a day by day wage labourer.
“He had gone out to do road pictures, which was his ardour, and that’s the place he obtained shot. I used to be house and realized about his taking pictures by Fb pictures that had been shared by pals,” Gichuki informed Al Jazeera.
Gichuki described her brother as a hardworking younger man who had a number of goals, however which had 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 mentioned, explaining that one bullet was fragmented in his mind whereas one other was eliminated by medical doctors 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 useless 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 aside from inform her over the cellphone,” Wanjiku mentioned.
‘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” that means “Seven Seven” in Kiswahili to mark the date on July 7, 1990, when individuals demanded a return to multiparty democracy after years of rule by then-President Daniel arap Moi.
This 12 months, the protest become 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 house in Homa Bay for a nighttime vigil earlier than his burial the following 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 manner again to Ojwang’s house together with his physique.
The following 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 finished. Bear in mind we’re nonetheless celebrating Seven Seven right here. We are going to do Seven Seven for Albert Ojwang.”
However on the rallies, police had been as soon as once more heavy-handed. In Nairobi, they fired dwell rounds and water cannon on the protesters. Eleven individuals had been killed.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights mentioned individuals had 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 continued protests”.
‘Why did you kill my youngster?’
Inside his circles, Ojwang is alleged 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 good friend Daniel Mushwahili mentioned Ojwang was modest and sociable.
“I knew this individual as a really cool and outgoing individual. He had many pals. … He was not an conceited individual, not a bully, and didn’t even take part in harassing anyone,” Mushwahili mentioned. 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 challenge to plant greens, so we might promote and earn cash. Now I don’t know the place to start out with out him,” she mentioned.
“I really feel a number of ache as a result of there are individuals who got here house and took my son. … I really feel a number 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 precious issues, even with the little that they had.
Opiyo mentioned 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 struggle again. In his grief, he mentioned he now desires solutions from the police and specifically Deputy Inspector Common Lagat, who made the grievance in opposition to Ojwang.
“In the present day, my son is useless from accidents inflicted by beating. I would like you to clarify to me why you killed my youngster,” Opiyo mentioned.
“My son didn’t die in an accident or in battle. He died in silence within the arms of those that had been supposed to guard him.”