Saboti Member of Parliament (MP) Caleb Amisi has decried the increasing deaths in police custody following Albert Ojwang’s demise.
In a statement on X on Monday, June 9, 2025, Amisi linked Ojwang’s death to a wider national crisis, pointing to ongoing cases of mysterious disappearances, economic hardships, and the burden of diseases.
“Are there solitary confinement cells at our police stations where arrested individuals die lonely without eyewitnesses?” he posed.
“There are too many Kenyans shedding tears day in and day out. Weather is losing children mysteriously to the police from abductions, economic hardships, disease, etc.,” he added.
Ojwang died on June 8, 2025, hours after officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arrested him over a social media post.
Ojwang’s arrest
He was picked up by police officers in Kakot, Homa Bay County, on Saturday afternoon, June 7, 2025, who said they were probing him over a post he allegedly made on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
They later drove him to Nairobi and detained him at the Central Police Station.
However, when his family arrived at the police station on Sunday, June 8, 2025, to follow up on the case, they found he was dead.
“We awaited his arraignment in court on Monday, June 9, 2025, so we can follow up on the case from there. But today, his father, who came to follow up after the arrest, informed me that his son was dead. It is quite unfortunate,” a lawyer for the family told reporters outside the police station.
/X
They said police told them Albert’s body had been taken to City Mortuary.
“One does not deserve to lose their life; there is the law, and we expected the boy to be processed normally and charged, then, if found guilty, punished according to the law,” the lawyer added.
Meshack Opiyo, Albert’s father, broke down as he narrated how his only child was arrested at their home while having lunch with the family after returning from the farm.
“He was arrested and taken to Mawego police station, and then later at night, he was transferred to Nairobi. The arresting police told me Albert had insulted a senior person on X,” Opiyo said.
Upon arrival in Nairobi on Sunday, June 8, 2025, he said officers at Central Police Station told him his son died in the hospital from self-inflicted injuries after hitting himself against the wall. Opiyo cast doubt on the police’s claims, calling for an urgent investigation.
