Murder in the Cell: IPOA Arrests Three Civilians Allegedly Ordered to Kill Blogger Albert Ojwang

In a dramatic twist in the murder investigation of blogger Albert Ojwang, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has arrested three civilians linked to the brutal killing, alleging they acted under police orders while in custody at Central Police Station, Nairobi. 

Ojwang, who had been detained at the station, died under suspicious circumstances on the night of his detention. IPOA’s preliminary investigations now point to a chilling allegation that police officers instructed three fellow detainees to torture and kill the blogger. 

The three individuals, whose initial arrest reasons remain undisclosed, were reportedly released shortly after Ojwang’s death. However, IPOA, after conducting investigations and gathering damning evidence, rearrested them on Sunday. They are now being held in separate stations: Kilimani, Muthangari, and Kileleshwa, for security and investigative purposes. 

Their lawyer stated that the trio had originally been held on a miscellaneous application and released without charges after five days. Now, they are expected to be arraigned on Monday, together with Samson Taalam, the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) at Central Police, who is currently detained at Lang’ata Police Station. 

As the investigation deepens, IPOA is actively pursuing two police officers captured on CCTV escorting a severely injured Ojwang to Mbagathi Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. One of the officers has been identified as Deputy OCS Samuel Ng’ang’a, who was reportedly on duty during the night of the incident. 

Investigators are now working through over 36 hours of CCTV footage, trying to reconstruct the exact timeline leading up to and after Ojwang’s death. Some footage is said to have been intentionally tampered with, prompting fears of a deliberate cover-up. 

A key suspect in the footage tampering: a CCTV technician who originally installed all 25 cameras at Central Police Station was arrested by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Friday, June 13. He allegedly confessed that he was summoned to the station on the morning of Saturday, June 8, by a police officer and instructed to delete surveillance footage from June 6 and 7. 

This development follows IPOA’s earlier admission to Parliament that critical CCTV footage had gone missing during the National Assembly’s own probe into Ojwang’s death. The arrest of the technician and the alleged involvement of multiple officers point to what may be a wider conspiracy within the police force to cover up a state-sanctioned custodial killing. 

The death of Albert Ojwang: a voice in Kenya’s blogging community has ignited widespread public anger, raising urgent questions about the safety of detainees, abuse of police power, and the role of civilians used as tools for extrajudicial acts. IPOA’s continued investigation is being closely watched by civil rights groups, journalists, and Kenyans who demand justice not only for Ojwang, but for a system that must no longer allow such deaths to go unpunished.