IG Kanja details events leading to death of Albert Ojwang

Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja has pieced together the last moments of content creator Albert Ojwang before his meeting his death while in custody in Nairobi.

IG Kanja said the late Ojwang’s arrest followed after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) received a formal complaint from Eliud Lagat, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Kenya Police Service.

The complaint had alleged that false and malicious information had been published against him on X (formerly Twitter) platform claiming that he was involved in corruption within the National Police Service (NPS).

“Specifically, the published information alleged that Eliud Lagat had strategically placed his most trusted officers in charge of DCI desks occurrence book and traffic sheets in order to control revenue streams and intelligence flow,” he stated.

According to the police boss, another post depicted him alongside Joseph Chirchir, a senior officer stationed in Nairobi Area command under the caption “EACC investigating top cop after purchase of $2.6million home in Dubai, accompanied by the DIG’s photograph and the phrase “Eliud Lagat – Mafia Police”

Following the claims, investigations were launched and found to be defamatory and unsubstantiated and of significant public concern under the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act 2018.

He told the Senators that DCI Director immediately assigned the case to the Cybercrime investigation officers composed of Corporal Abdulrahman Hussein, Constable Dennis Kanyoni, Constable Samuel Kamau and Constable Milton Mwanzi. The same day Hillary Mutai, Senior Superintendent Police who is the Officer in Charge Serious Crimes Unit domiciled at the DCI and Constable Milton Mwanzi visited Vigilance House to record the complainants statement.

“To verify the claims, the investigating team wrote a letter to EACC to confirm whether Mr Eliud Lagat was under any investigation. Similarly, a request was made to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) in writing to provide registration details and preserve posts associated with the X account handle,” the Inspector General said.

The IG said that CAK confirmed that the handle was active and had 13.4k followers and clarified that DIG Eliud Lagat was not under investigation by the commission.

The team sought additional information from the CAK regarding another X account handle Kelvin Moinde. The CAK responded with registered details and relevant posts of the account.

On 5th June, the investigating team travelled to Kisii County and arrested Moinde at his homestead where he was booked at Kenyenya Police Station and later transferred to DCI headquarters.

At DCI HQ, Kevin provided a statement and disclosed the involvement of four other individuals: Albert Ojwang, Dorcas Mawia, Douglas Marigiri and Peter Mbugua. He also shared their respective X account handles.

The team’s analysis of Albert Ojwang’s X account revealed that he had posted similar defamatory content and consequently on 7th June 2025, the investigation team travelled to Homa Bay and reported to Mawego Police Station. They were provided with three officers from the station by the local OCS to accompany them.

Subsequently, Albert Ojwang was arrested and booked under OB No. 09/07/06/2025. His departure for Nairobi was recorded vide OBNO11/07/06/2025 in the same police station.