NAIROBI, Kenya— The final phone call Nevenina Onyango received from her husband, slain teacher and online activist Albert Ojwang, still haunts her. He sounded terrified.
Speaking at a press briefing in Nairobi on Saturday, Nevenina recounted their last conversation, painting a chilling picture of Ojwang’s final hours in police custody at Central Police Station.
“He stayed in touch throughout the journey from Kisumu,” she said. “But something changed that night. My last call with him was around 9 p.m., and he sounded scared.”
It was the kind of fear she hadn’t heard in his voice before. Earlier, during the transfer to Nairobi, Ojwang had seemed calm—even telling her that officers had bought him snacks. But everything shifted once he reached Central Police Station.
“When they got to Nairobi, he wasn’t really okay,” Nevenina said. “He wasn’t talking well. Like he was just afraid.”
Ojwang had been arrested in Kisumu and transferred to the capital in what is now being investigated as a case of custodial death. He was later found dead—sparking public outrage and a growing call for accountability from civil rights groups and oversight bodies.
What made that final call even more heartbreaking, Nevenina said, was what Ojwang asked her: “He wanted to know how our son was doing.” It’s a moment she now sees as her husband sensing the worst.
And it’s not just her who feels that loss.
“The son has heard people crying and mentioning Omondi,” she shared, referring to Ojwang’s middle name. “He knows Omondi is his dad. He even asked me, ‘Has daddy died?’ But I’ve just been trying to manage him by saying it’s not true.”
Ojwang’s parents, Meshack Opiyo and Margaret Achieng, stood by her side during the briefing, visibly emotional but determined to seek justice. Burial plans, the family said, have not yet been finalized, as investigations into his death continue.
Albert Ojwang’s case has become a lightning rod in the national debate over police brutality, with the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) now actively investigating.
His death is part of a string of recent custodial fatalities, raising questions about abuse of power, oversight failure, and the safety of detainees in Kenya.
What started as a routine arrest has now exploded into a national conversation on justice, accountability, and grief. For Nevenina, the heartbreak lives not just in what happened—but in the way it unfolded, one frightened call at a time.
