32 hours to death: What police won’t say about Albert Ojwang’s final journey

Albert Ojwang was arrested on Friday and reported dead on Sunday morning.

The late blogger was picked up at his home on Friday afternoon and logged in the occurrence book at the Nairobi Central Police Station 32 hours later.

In that 32-hour period, Ojwang went from a healthy young adult male to a dead body. There are really no clear answers on how this transformation occurred, and those expected to investigate his death also double up as the main suspects.

Citizen TV trailed Ojwang’s last minutes from Friday, June 6, 2025, at 1:30pm, at his home in Kokwanyo Village, Kabondo Kasipul Constituency, in Homa Bay County.

Three motorbikes reportedly arrived at Ojwang’s home, where he was having lunch together with his wife and child, under trees that he planted as part of his environmental conservation exercise.

The men, in civilian attire, alighted; some introduced themselves, some did not.

“Walichukua kijana wakiwemo maafisa sita…Bwana Sigei na Bwana Rapudo,” said Joseph Okumu, the family spokesperson.

The officers left with Ojwang. One motorbike ahead, Ojwang on the second sandwiched between two officers, the third following and off they went. What he didn’t know was that these were his last 32 hours alive.

The 10-minute ride to Mawego Police Station was smooth. The calm before the storm. Inside the police station, a few hours later, his father Meshack Ojwang told Citizen TV that the boy was put under intense interrogation, before he was bundled into a waiting blue Subaru vehicle the same Friday.

Relatives say that at about 3pm to 4pm, the vehicle left with Ojwang on board. Records of the OB at Mawego Police Station remain scanty.

Two Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers were in front and two in the back seat. Again, Ojwang was sandwiched between the two at the back.

The journey from Homa Bay to Nairobi by road, according to Google Maps, is approximately slightly more than 6 hours. However, Ojwang was checked into the Nairobi Central Police Station about 32 hours later.

Questions arise about where he was for the extra 26 hours and what happened to him.

Ojwang, who was picked up from his home healthy, was checked in at the Nairobi Central Police Station under the OB number 137/7/6/2025 at 9:35pm on Saturday.

A conspicuous word, 'sick', was also written under his details. Sources within the police station say the deceased was booked in bleeding and with serious injuries.

"We found serious injuries on the head, neck compression, and soft tissue injuries spread across the body," said government pathologist Dr. Bernard Midia.

Several theories have been put across to explain Ojwang’s injuries leading to his death. That he may have been tortured and assaulted during the approximately 26 hours that remain unaccounted for. That he may have been tortured during the 20 hours, and also tortured on his way to Nairobi, and that the deceased may have been tortured, at an undisclosed location, en route and within police cells.

Reports indicate that, within his solitary cell, blood stains were splattered on the wall and floor, with water ostensibly smeared on the floor meant to distort evidence also captured. A sign that he was tortured even within the cells.

Ojwang was, according to police records, declared dead on arrival at the Mbagathi Hospital at 1:39am.

"He was peaceful and jovial. He always sought to bring warring parties together,” his father Meshack Ojwang’ said.

Several questions now linger, among them, who ordered Ojwang’s arrest? Who are the officers who picked him up at his home? Were they the same officers who transported him to Nairobi? Why has there been no action taken against them? Who assaulted him? Why was he transferred from Homa Bay to Nairobi, more than 400 kilometres away from the alleged area of the incident? And most importantly, who killed him?