The death of 31-year-old Albert Ojwang while in police custody has triggered nationwide anger over the Kenya Police Service’s brutality and reopened wounds of extrajudicial killings in the country.

Ojwang, a high school teacher and an outspoken social media influencer from Homa Bay County, died under unclear circumstances. He’d been in police custody at Nairobi’s Central Police Station on Sunday, June 8, 2025, hours after his arrest. This has ignited grief, anger, and demands for justice across the country.

In an initial statement, police said that Ojwang sustained head injuries after hitting his head against a cell wall while in custody. But a post-mortem report indicated that he was hit on the head, and his demise was likely to have been caused by assault.  

Amnesty International Kenya (AIK) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHRC) issued a joint statement condemning what they described as a premature and irresponsible police narrative. “That was a reckless statement, issued by the police before any forensic examination, which compromised the integrity of the investigation,” the statement read in part.

A recent report by the Missing Voices Coalition, a consortium of civil society organisations, which documents enforced disappearances and killings in Kenya, documented a total of 159 cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in 2024.

Out of the 159 cases, 104 (65%) were incidents of police-related killings, while 55 (35%) were enforced disappearances. According to the coalition, 2024 had the highest number of cases of enforced disappearances. Before then, in 2019, the year had the highest number of cases of enforced disappearances.

The report, released in May, indicated that 2024 saw an increase of 24% of cases of enforced disappearances and police killings compared to 2023. Enforced disappearances increased by 450% from 10 cases in 2023 to 55 in 2024. However, cases of police related killings saw a drop of 12% from 118 in 2023 to 104 in 2024.

Most cases of extrajudicial killings, according to the report, took place during the Gen Z protests between June and August 2024, with June recording the highest number of cases at 38. In July, 11 cases were reported, while in August, nine cases were recorded. That brought police killing cases to 58 during the protest period.

The report further stated that Nairobi County led with the highest number of killings at 38 cases, followed by Kiambu County with nine cases, Migori County with six cases, and Kakamega and Nakuru counties with five cases each. Makueni and Uasin Gishu counties recorded four cases of police killings.

Additionally, it stated that most victims of extrajudicial killings were youth aged between 18 and 34 years old. A majority of those killed were youth  (79), followed by adults (18), and minors were seven. When it came to gender, 91% of the victims were men compared to 9% who were female.

Infographic

• 159 Cases Recorded in 2024

              Police-related Killings: 104 cases

              Enforced Disappearances: 55 cases

• Cases reported during Gen Z Protests:

June – 38 cases

July – 11 cases

August – 9 cases

• Counties Most Affected:

Nairobi County – 38 cases

Kiambu County – 9 cases

Migori County – 6 cases

Kakamega County – 5 cases

Nakuru County – 5 cases

Uasin Gishu County – 4 cases

Makueni County – 4 cases

• Victims’ Age

18 and 34 years old – 79

35 years and above – 18

18 years and below – 7

• Gender (%)

Male – 91%

Female – 9%

The Missing Voices Coalition said the 2024 enforced disappearance statistics excluded 36 members of Uganda’s Forum for Democratic Change who were abducted in Kisumu on July 23, 2024. The 104 incidents of extrajudicial killings excluded 50 bullet-riddled unclaimed bodies in the City Mortuary reported to have been booked on July 25, 2024.

“While these bodies were booked at the height of the protest, Missing Voices has yet to verify and establish the link to police action independently. However, we mention them in the report due to their magnitude, just like the organisation did during the documentation of River Yala bodies in the 2022 report, since the manner of killings was suspicious. Missing Voices highlighted the 50 cases, even though they are not part of our verified totals. There are two people whom the police said had committed suicide. They have been documented as deaths while in police custody,” the report stated.

The report further indicated that despite the high number of enforced disappearances, no officer has been officially charged with the crimes. “The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has reported 60 cases arising out of the protest. However, so far, only two have been taken to court. This was in response to the release of the BBC documentary “Blood Parliament.”

The Missing Voices noted that the challenges of investigating and prosecuting cases arising from protests have necessitated the doctrine of command responsibility, which the coalition’s partners are pursuing in the Baby Pendo case. “We are concerned that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) dropped charges against eight senior commanders who had been lined up for prosecution.”

Even more worrying, the coalition said, was the DPP’s move to expose witnesses in the charge sheet, which endangered their lives. “It is worrisome that the majority of cases forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) arising from protests have either been returned for further investigation or closed, making it difficult to hold police officers to account for public order management violations.”

Police Accused of Cover-Up

On Wednesday, June 11, during the Senate session in Parliament, Senators called for Deputy Inspector-General Eliud Lagat, who filed the complaint that led to Ojwang’s arrest, to step aside pending investigations.

This followed the naming of the police officers involved in the arrest amid allegations that CCTV cameras at Nairobi Central Police Station were tampered with on the night Ojwang was held. Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja, during the Senate session, said they were misled to claim that Ojwang hit his head in a cell.

IPOA

IPOA, which is mandated to check police impunity and restore public trust, is struggling to hold rogue police officers accountable.

During the week, the Daily Nation newspaper reported that IPOA chairperson Ahmed Issack Hassan had said that in the past year alone, 136 deaths had been linked to police officers, with an additional 59 people reported to have died in police custody.

According to Hassan, out of the 60 registered death cases, IPOA has completed 22 investigations, is actively pursuing 36, and has two cases currently before the courts. Of the completed investigations, eight are under final internal review, four are in the final stages of report writing before submission to the DPP. Two were closed, four have been forwarded to the DPP for review, and three were closed following DPP directives.

During the protests, IPOA recorded 233 injury cases, with 191 currently under active investigation. Of the remaining cases, 42 were closed while two were forwarded to the DPP. Two hundred and sixty-eight cases are pending before courts, 82 of which are from investigations conducted in 2024, while 10 are from this year. The authority further said 11 police officers were convicted in 2024.