NAIROBI, Kenya — The death of blogger and teacher Albert Ojwang while in police custody has cracked open a disturbing truth: at least 20 people have died in police cells over the past four months, according to fresh revelations by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).
The shocking figure, delivered by IPOA Chairperson Issack Hassan during a tense session with the National Assembly’s Security Committee on Thursday, paints a grim picture of law enforcement facilities increasingly associated with brutality and silence, not justice.
“We have had 20 deaths in police custody in the last four months,” Hassan said, calling the trend a national crisis that demands more than just inquiries—it demands accountability.
Ojwang’s case, however, has become the flashpoint. Arrested last weekend in Kakot, Homa Bay County, over what police say was a derogatory post on X allegedly targeting Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat, Ojwang was transported hundreds of kilometers to Nairobi and held at Central Police Station.
Less than 24 hours later, his family was informed that he had died. No phone call. No medical alert. Just a body at City Mortuary.
Police claimed he fatally injured himself by hitting his head against a cell wall.
IPOA’s take? That explanation is “incredible,” said Hassan—more like an “embarrassing cover-up” than a plausible cause of death. Preliminary findings now point to torture and murder.
“The CCTV had been interfered with. The man was tortured and killed,” Hassan declared. “The signal from the Inspector-General attempting to explain his death was a very poor cover-up.”
It doesn’t stop there.
IPOA’s investigation has revealed that hard disks from CCTV systems at Central Police Station were swapped and formatted just hours after Ojwang died.
Hassan believes the move was a calculated attempt to erase critical evidence. “We are not going to be used as a fire extinguisher for police,” he said, signaling IPOA’s refusal to be complicit in any official whitewashing of the case.
In a bold move, Hassan said all officers involved in Ojwang’s arrest, detention, and post-mortem handling are being treated as murder suspects.
That includes the DCI officers who picked him up in Homa Bay, the Nairobi officers who booked and detained him, and those who handled his body after his death.
So far, 17 police officers and six civilian witnesses have been interrogated. IPOA is also gearing up to summon DIG Lagat for questioning as the probe inches toward what could be a watershed moment in Kenyan police accountability.
And it’s not just talk. IPOA has reportedly secured enough evidence to arrest at least three individuals in connection with Ojwang’s death.
“We expect some kind of ‘blue code’—where officers refuse to talk—but we have other means,” said Hassan, hinting at growing momentum within the oversight authority to break through the wall of silence that often shields police from scrutiny.
As public fury grows—fueled by violent protests, blocked roads, but how many more names are on that unspoken list of lives lost behind cell bars.
