A tweet has cost a young Kenyan teacher his life and now the country is reeling from one of the most chilling cases of police brutality in recent history.
Albert Omondi Ojwang, a 31-year-old father and outspoken teacher from Homa Bay, was arrested over the weekend for allegedly sharing a social media post that offended a senior police officer.
Days later, he was dead with visible signs of having been beaten, denied treatment and discarded in a police cell like a criminal.
His death has ignited a national firestorm, exposing bitter rivalries within Kenya’s top security agencies and what human rights advocates call a “murder by the State.”
“This wasn’t a suicide. This was an execution,” said a senior officer at Central Police Station, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ojwang’s ordeal began quietly on a Saturday afternoon as he ate lunch with his father in Kakot village, Homa Bay.
Two motorcycles carrying plainclothes officers allegedly from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arrived unannounced.
They handcuffed Ojwang and told his father they were arresting him over a post on X (formerly Twitter) that insulted a senior officer.
The post, it turned out, was published on an account run by Kelvin Moinde, where Ojwang was merely an admin. That didn’t matter. What followed was a horrific 385-kilometre journey to Nairobi that turned deadly.
He was first detained at Mawego Police Station before being moved to Central Police Station in Nairobi. By the time he arrived, he was bleeding, struggling to walk and reportedly denied medical care.
Officers at Central say the OCS Benjamin Tallam refused to book him, insisting he be treated first but that never happened. Hours later, Ojwang was dead.
The official police report claims Ojwang died by suicide, allegedly smashing his head against a wall in his cell. But family members, police insiders and civil society groups aren’t buying it.
Autopsy and eyewitness accounts directly contradict the police narrative. Police sources confirm he arrived severely beaten, likely during the transfer from Homa Bay.
His family wasn’t notified until the body had already been moved from Mbagathi Hospital to Nairobi Funeral Home.
The fallout has laid bare vicious internal rivalries within Kenya’s security establishment.
By Kenyans