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The last time Meshack Ojwang saw his only son alive, they were sharing lunch under the shade of a tree outside their rural home in Kapondo Kasipul, Homa Bay County, about 350 South West of Nairobi. It was a quiet Sunday, June 8, 2025.
Albert had just come from his small vegetable garden. His father had been weeding the maize farm nearby. His mother, wife, and a few neighborhood children sat nearby as they ate together in the open compound.
Then, the roar of motorbike engines cut through the calm. Three motorbikes carrying six men arrived and stopped at the gate. Meshack walked to greet them. The men introduced themselves as police officers. One of them, he remembers, was called Sigei. The others didn’t register.
“They stopped my son from eating,” Meshack recalled, in an address to the press on Monday, June 9, 2025. “They handcuffed him without explanation.
I asked, ‘What has my child done?’ They said he had insulted their boss on Twitter.” He pressed further. “Which boss?”But Sgt. Sigei only responded, “Mzee, don’t ask a lot of questions. Just follow us to Mawego Police Station.”
Whisked to Nairobi at Night
Albert was sandwiched in the middle of the six officers and led out of the compound.
Meshack and his brother followed on foot to Mawego Police Station, where they found Albert seated with the Officer Commanding Station (OCS). The officers told Meshack that his son had soiled the reputation of a senior police officer. They would be transferring him to Nairobi. They advised Meshack to follow them.
That evening, Meshack boarded a public bus bound for Nairobi, holding out love and hope like an egg in his hands. It left at 9 p.m. He arrived in the capital before dawn, around 4:24 a.m. He sat at the bus station waiting for daybreak. At 7:00 a.m., he made his way to Central Police Station to see his son.“I introduced myself at the desk and said I had come to see my son,” he said. The officer told me to wait.
He waited for thirty minutes. Then another thirty. At 10:00 a.m., he returned again to the counter. This time, the police chaplain came out to meet him. The chaplain took him into the OCS’s office, where three of the officers who had arrested his son were present. But Sgt. Sigei and two others were absent. The OCS told Meshack he could not speak to him because “his boss was present.” They then moved to the OCPD’s office.
“There, they said we should first pray together,” Meshack said, his voice breaking.
After the prayer, the OCPD told him the words that shattered his life: “Your son committed suicide in the cell.”
The Only Son, Raised With Blisters, Strangled
Albert Omondi Ojwang was 31 years old. He had studied at Pwani University. He was a teacher at a secondary school in Voi. He was the only child of a man who had labored for twenty years at a stone quarry in Mombasa to give him an education. Meshack had no other child,no son, no daughter. His son was his hope. “When I was crushing stones, I used to tell myself: one day, this boy will help me,” Meshack said. “Now I am old. Where will I get another child? Where will I start?”
The official story by the police was absurd. In a statement meant to quell the angry nation, the police said that Albert had hit his head on the wall and died from the injury. This fallacy was disqualified by the doctors and common sense. The autopsy, which was conducted by five independent pathologists, including Kenya’s leading forensic expert Dr. Bernard Midia, told the real story.
“There were serious injuries to the head,” Dr. Midia said. “Features of neck compression. Multiple soft tissue injuries spread across the head, neck, limbs, trunk, and lower limbs. These are consistent with assault.”
He added: “These injuries were not self-inflicted. The pattern of injuries does not match someone hitting their head on a wall. The bleeding was on the face, back of the head, the sides. There were also signs of a struggle.”
Faith Odhiambo, President of the Law Society of Kenya, had earlier viewed the body.
“There were defence wounds on his hands,” she said. “Both sides of his face were swollen. His eyes were blackened. This wasn’t a suicide. He was tortured and murdered in custody.”
The Police Chief Who Signed His Death Warrant
The trail that led to Albert’s arrest began on June 4, 2025. The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Eliud Lagat, filed a complaint with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), alleging that a Twitter user operating under the handle “Pixel Pioneer” had posted defamatory content about him. The DCI’s Serious Crime Unit traced the account to a man named Kelvin Moinde, who was arrested in Kisii County on June 5.
During interrogation, the officers allegedly established that Albert Ojwang was linked to the account. They formed a five-man arrest team: Sgt. Sigei, Sgt. Wesley Kipkorir Kirui, PC Dennis Kenyoni, PC Milton Mwanze, and PC Bonface Rabudo. On June 7, they traveled to Lida Centre in Homa Bay and arrested Albert at 2:30 p.m. He was taken to Mawego Police Station and booked in. At 3:54 p.m., he was booked out and escorted to Nairobi. By 9:31 p.m., he was booked into Central Police Station.
At 6:00 a.m. the following morning, a signal was sent by the Inspector General of Police to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), indicating Albert had been rushed to Mbagathi Hospital that night, where he was declared dead.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority launched immediate investigations. They visited the scene, collected blood samples, seized CCTV equipment, recorded statements from the arresting officers, and obtained records from Mawego and Central Police stations. According to the IPOA Vice Chairperson, Anne Wwanjiku, one crucial finding stood out: the CCTV located near the OCS’s office had been interfered with.
The Senate Erupts
Albert’s death reverberated across the country and even Parliament was shaken. In the Senate, nominated Senator Crystal Asige rose to speak. “In June of 2024, the streets were the crime scene during the Gen Z protests,” she said. “Now, police stations have become the new crime scene.” She demanded answers.“Why was Albert arrested without a warrant? Why was he moved 350 kilometers from Homa Bay to Nairobi? Why was he not processed locally? Why was he placed in a solitary cell?”
Senator Boni Khalwale of Kakamega compared Albert’s death to historical injustices.
“It reminds me of when Vice President Moi said J.M. Kariuki had traveled abroad when he was already dead. Of when they said Robert Ouko had committed suicide. When Steve Biko was beaten to death in South Africa, and they claimed he died from starvation. Albert’s case is no different. He was killed.”
Khalwale didn’t mince words as he went for the jugular. “We want Mr. Eliud Lagat to be arrested so that he can write a statement from a police station. The police officers who went to Migori and brought this boy from home to Nairobi so that Lagat could see him when they are slapping him around should equally be arrested,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, seeing the shape of that face, the guy could not possibly have wanted to hit the wall using the front of his head. It is only Parliament, Mr. Speaker, which can bring this to an end. We must protect our children.”
IPOA: Central Station CCTV Was Tampered With
IPOA Vice Chairperson Anne Wanjiku addressed the Senate on June 11, confirming that a letter from DIG Lagat had initiated the chain of events.“Our officers recorded statements from all five arresting DCI officers,” she said. “We seized the CCTV DVR. We collected blood samples. We identified interference with the OCS office camera. Postmortem findings confirm death from assault.”
That same day, President William Ruto issued a public statement.
“I extend my heartfelt condolences to Mr. Meshack Ojwang and his family for the cruel loss of their son,” he said. “I strongly condemn the actions and omissions, including any negligence or outright criminality, that may have contributed to his untimely death. I expect the truth to be established and justice to be served.”
By press time, the officers involved in Albert’s arrest had been interdicted. No charges have been filed. No senior police officer has been arrested.
Meshack Ojwang waits.“I wish I had met the boss who ordered this,” he told journalists Monday, fighting tears. “I would have asked him to kill me too.”
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