Following the death of a man arrested for “false publication” in jail, Kenya’s police commander suspended the head of a police station as well as all other officers on duty at the time.
Following a post on X in the western town of Homa Bay, Albert Ojwang was detained and subsequently driven 350km (220 miles) to the capital, Nairobi, according to his father Meshack Opiyo, a journalist.
“While in custody, the suspect sustained head injuries after hitting his head against a cell wall,” a police account said. He was taken urgently to a hospital “where he was pronounced dead on arrival”.
According to senior police officer Stephen Okal reported in the Star newspaper, the events in the cell amounted to “an attempted suicide”.
Though Mr. Opiyo informed online news site Citizen Digital that the arresting police officer said “Albert had insulted a senior person on X,” the accusation of “false publication” is unclear.
Released overnight, a police statement claimed officers were suspended to enable Kenya’s autonomous monitoring authority to launch a “impartial investigation”.
Online indignation at the death of Mr. Ojwang, reportedly 31, calls for demonstrations to demand police responsibility.
Referring to the facts of his arrest, Amnesty International Kenya head Irungu Houghton said it was “quite shocking” that Mr Ojwang was taken on a protracted journey instead of being booked in the local police station.
At the police station in Nairobi, he summoned the independent investigators to guard what he claimed to be “the crime scene”.
Mr Ojwang was “lawfully arrested,” according to the police.
His incarceration and death occur during a period of growing concern over the treatment of some government detractors.
Rose Njeri, a software engineer who developed a program to enable individuals protest a government financing bill, was accused last week of breaching a cybercrime law.
