Mounting pressure is being placed on Kenya’s Deputy Inspector General of Police, Eliud Langat, to resign following the mysterious death of X user and teacher Albert Ojwang — a case fast becoming a test of the country’s resolve on police accountability and digital freedoms.
Ojwang, arrested over a satirical tweet featuring fabricated headlines implicating DIG Langat in corruption, died under highly suspicious circumstances while in custody at Nairobi’s Central Police Station.
The controversy has now entangled top police officials, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).
An exposé by Standard Media alleged that prior to the arrest, GSU officers in a white Toyota Probox, bearing number plates registered to a black Subaru Forester, stormed the media house, demanding answers about the origin of the fake headlines targeting DIG Langat.
Shortly after, Ojwang was picked up from his home in Homa Bay. Police Inspector General Douglas Kanja revealed that Langat had lodged a formal complaint with the DCI regarding the tweet, prompting an urgent probe. A team of elite officers was dispatched across counties to apprehend suspects linked to the viral post.
After arresting another man, Kevin Moinde, in Kisii, investigators turned their attention to Ojwang. He was arrested on June 6 and transported to Nairobi. According to Kanja, the officers allowed Ojwang to contact his wife, shared refreshments with him in Narok, and documented his condition with photos — all to show he was in good health.
However, that narrative quickly unravelled.
According to reports by The Star, Ojwang was secretly removed from his cell and driven to Karura Forest in a private vehicle after the DCI vehicle was released. There, sources allege, he was tortured. When he slipped into a coma, his captors panicked, returned him to Central Police Station, and placed him in a solitary cell. By 1:39 am, his death was quietly recorded.
Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Samson Taalam now finds himself at the centre of the storm. He claims he was summoned after Ojwang had already been booked and that he personally ordered medical attention — a claim contradicted by IPOA’s witness, who says screams were heard during the night.
Kanja, who initially claimed Ojwang had harmed himself, has since backtracked. Alongside President William Ruto, he is now calling for swift investigations.
The case has ignited national outrage, highlighting troubling patterns of police excess, shrinking civic space, and the weaponization of state machinery against dissent.
