Ojwang's murder, police cover-up severe assault on intelligence

Albert Ojwang. [Courtesy]

Were it not for its tragic consequences, the criminal conduct by the Kenya Police would have had comedic elements. I mean, it’s one thing to insult people’s intelligence—quite another to expect to get away with it.

Strangely, Interior Security Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen—who, in a civilised world, would be out of a job for overseeing a rogue government entity—chose to respond by attacking Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei. He accused the senator of being an average student, and therefore incapable of assessing Murkomen’s incompetence.

That’s an odd way of thinking, and telling of Murkomen’s low threshold for what constitutes competence. But we’ll let it pass.

Some Kenyans have a point when they say we’re paying the price for lowering the entry requirements to Kiganjo Police Training College to a grade “D”, hence the insulting explanations from police over the Albert Ojwang murder conspiracy.

The 31-year-old high school teacher had travelled from his base in Voi to visit his parents in Migori, some 500 kilometres away. He was having a meal when a group of officers arrived at his father’s house. “Put the plate down,” they ordered, before dragging him away.

The giant telco, Safaricom, swore by the gods of Kirinyaga that they did not provide data to help police locate Ojwang, so we are to assume the cops used witchcraft to smoke him out.

This time, the police were adequately resourced: the vehicles that routinely lack fuel to assist needy Kenyans had enough petrol to run for hundreds of kilometres. Ojwang’s killers reportedly stopped in Narok to buy him water, soda, and biscuits, Police Inspector General Douglas Kanja told a startled nation.

Lord have mercy! We’re talking about a murder plot, and the topmost cop in the land is talking about biscuits and soda! After the biscuit break, Ojwang’s journey into oblivion becomes murky. Somehow, this healthy man—whose crime remains unknown—turned up dead at the Central Police Station, where, according to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, CCTV cameras had conveniently been disabled.

Then came the choreography to blame Ojwang for his own death. Kanja claimed that Ojwang knocked his head against a wall, although the post-mortem report revealed he had been severely assaulted and strangled.

If we were a civilised state—and we do like to pretend, especially our leaders who don designer robes and accessories mostly bought with money stolen from poor Kenyans—Kanja would be out of a job for lying to the public.

Kanja’s deputy, Eliud Lagat—reportedly the one who instigated Ojwang’s arrest—along with Police Spokesman Muchiri Gitonga, who authored a fraudulent statement misrepresenting key facts about the case, as well as all officers involved in transporting Ojwang from Homa Bay to Nairobi, would be in custody "to assist with investigations."

The rank and file at Central Police Station should have been interdicted and ordered to record statements, so that those implicated in the murder can be charged immediately.

But since we are neither civilised nor sophisticated, we will instead be subjected to the crudest of spectacles from the top echelons of government. Prezzo Bill Ruto has assured the public that there is sufficient autonomy and “independence” in the police force, and he’s confident they will get to the bottom of the matter.

I fully agree with that assessment; I saw this autonomy in action when former Attorney-General Justin Muturi resigned and his security detail was immediately withdrawn. Or when police sprang into action with astonishing speed after former Deputy Prezzo Rigathi Gachagua’s meetings were disrupted by goons.

Give it to the authorities—they did not claim Ojwang took himself to the morgue, as they did in February 1990 when then Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko was abducted from his home in Koru, near Kisumu, and murdered.

Police ruled Ouko’s death a suicide—he had, according to them, tortured himself, shot himself in the head, doused himself in petrol, and then struck a match. His charred remains were discovered by a herdsman days later.

That’s the legacy of police competence and independence that Prezzo Ruto invoked this week. Indeed, we must have faith in our institutions.