20 people died in police custody in the last four months: IPOA

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has sounded the alarm over the rise in deaths occurring in police custody, saying at least 20 people have died while held by police in the past four months alone.

IPOA Chairperson Issack Hassan announced this on Thursday while appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Security to address the ongoing investigation into the death of blogger and teacher Albert Ojwang, who died last weekend under mysterious circumstances at Central Police Station in Nairobi.

IPOA’s preliminary findings into Ojwang’s case have since revealed that Ojwang was tortured and killed while in police custody, contrary to police claims that he succumbed to injuries sustained after he hit his head against the cell wall.

“The signal by the police Inspector-General was incredible; it was a very poor cover-up attempt to say that Ojwang had hit his head severally on the wall,” said Hassan.

“The CCTV had been interfered with. The man was tortured and killed.”

While IPOA has yet to arrest any suspects—citing a lack of prosecutorial powers—Hassan declared that all officers linked to the case are being treated as murder suspects.

This includes officers who arrested Ojwang in Homa Bay, those who detained him in Nairobi, and those who handled his body. He said a total of 17 police officers and six witnesses have been interviewed so far.

“We are not going to be used as a fire extinguisher for police or enable this cover-up,” he stated. “We want the police to cooperate fully. Every officer involved in Ojwang’s arrest and detention is under investigation.”

Ojwang’ was arrested by Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) officers in Kakot, Homa Bay County on Saturday afternoon, who said they were probing him over a derogatory post he allegedly made on the social media platform X.

Kenya Police Service Deputy Inspector-General Eliud Lagat was the complainant behind the arrest. 

The officers later drove Ojwang’ to Nairobi and detained him at the Central Police Station.

However, when his family arrived at the police station on Sunday to follow up on the case, police told them Ojwang’ had died and his body taken to City Mortuary.

Hassan on Thursday announced that Lagat will be also summoned to record a statement as the investigation nears completion.

“We have the capacity to investigate this issue, of course, we expect some kind of blue code where officers will choose to be silent, but we have other means,” he said.