Protests take place almost a year after several killed and seized by Kenyan police in finance bill protests.
Protesters took to the streets of Kenya’s capital Nairobi to express their fury over the death of a blogger arrested by police last week, as the country’s police watchdog reported that 20 people had died in custody over the last four months.
Police used tear gas to disperse crowds gathered close to the capital’s parliamentary building on Thursday to protest against the death of Albert Ojwang, a 31-year-old blogger arrested in the western town of Homa Bay last week for criticising the country’s deputy police chief Eliud Lagat.
Police had initially said Ojwang died “after hitting his head against a cell wall”, but pathologist Bernard Midia, part of a team that conducted an autopsy, said the wounds – including a head injury, neck compression and soft tissue damage – pointed to assault as the cause of death.
On Wednesday, President William Ruto admitted Ojwang had died “at the hands of the police”, reversing earlier official accounts of his death, saying in a statement that it was “heartbreaking and unacceptable”.
Kenyan media outlets reported on Thursday that a police constable had been arrested over Ojwang’s death.
Reporting from the protests in Nairobi, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb said that Ojwang, who wrote about political and social issues, had posted online about Lagat’s alleged role in a “bribery scandal”, in which the deputy police chief had already been implicated by a newspaper investigation.
“It’s angered people that he was detained for that, and then days later, dead in a police station,” said Webb, who added that people were calling for Lagat to be held to account, and “persisting in throwing stones at the police in spite of one volley of tear gas after the next being fired at them”.
Finance bill protests: one year on
The case has shone a light on the country’s security services, who have been accused of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances for years.
On Thursday, Independent Policing Oversight Authority chairperson Issak Hassan told lawmakers that there had been “20 deaths in police custody in the last four months”.
The authorities are now conducting an official investigation into Ojwang’s death.
On Wednesday, Inspector General Douglas Kanja apologised for police having previously implied that Ojwang died by suicide, telling a Senate hearing: “He did not hit his head against the wall.”
Ojwang’s death comes almost a year after several activists and protesters were killed and taken by police during finance bill protests – many are still missing.
The rallies led to calls for the removal of Ruto, who was criticised for the crackdown.
Amnesty International said Ojwang’s death in custody on Saturday “must be urgently, thoroughly and independently investigated”.