Outrage over the death of a Kenyan blogger in police custody sparked protests in the capital Nairobi this week after doctors refuted a police claim that the activist died in his cell from a self-inflicted head injury.
The protests first erupted on Monday, a day after Kenya’s National Police Service said Albert Ojwang died while in custody from “head injuries” after “hitting his head against the cell wall.”
Ojwang’s death further enrages Kenya’s youth, who have railed against the disappearance of dozens of anti-government critics since a protest movement forced the withdrawal of a controversial finance bill last year.
Demonstrators on Thursday were confronted by police who deployed teargas in an attempt to disperse them.
Ojwang, 31, was a teacher and father whose “last known communication was a plea for bail,” according to Amnesty Kenya. Local newspaper The Daily Nation described him as an “influencer” who was known “for his strong online presence and social media campaigns.”
Ojwang was arrested on Friday, a police statement said, “for the offense of false publication.” On Sunday, he was “found unconscious,” it added, “during a routine cell inspection.”
Six police officers are being investigated, police said, according to national broadcaster KBC.
Further explaining the arrest, Kenya’s police chief, Douglas Kanja, stated on Wednesday that his deputy, Eliud Lagat, had earlier filed a complaint alleging that Ojwang accused Lagat of corruption in a post on the social media platform X.
Protesters have called for Lagat’s removal.
On Wednesday, government pathologist Bernard Midia contradicted the police’s account of what caused Ojwang’s death, saying that an autopsy “found serious injuries to the head,” as well as “features of neck compression” and “multiple soft tissue injuries that were spread all over the body.”
“The cause of death is very clear,” Midia told reporters, noting that the pattern of the injuries “are pointing towards assault” and are “unlikely to be self-inflicted.”
He said that the autopsy was carried out by a team of five pathologists.
The head of Kenya’s police, Kanja, on Wednesday retracted the initial claim on Ojwang’s cause of death.
“I tender my apology on behalf of the National Police Service for that misinformation,” Kanja told a parliamentary committee on national security.
“It is not true… he did not hit his head against the wall,” the police chief told lawmakers, stating that the initial assertion was based on the preliminary information he received.
Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has begun an inquiry into Ojwang’s death.
Kenyan President William Ruto said Wednesday that he’d received the news of Ojwang’s death “with utter shock and dismay.”
“This tragic occurrence, at the hands of the police, is heartbreaking and unacceptable,” Ruto said in a statement, calling for a “swift, transparent, and credible investigation.”
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