Kenya death-in-custody victim was arrested for criticising cop online

Kenya's police chief said Monday that a man who died in custody over the weekend had been arrested for criticising a senior officer. The country was already on edge as it marks a year since massive protests over tax rises and corruption that triggered a police response in which at least 60 were killed. Albert Ojwang, 31, was found unconscious in a cell in Nairobi's central police station on Saturday and later pronounced dead in hospital. The police said he hit his own head against the wall. "We saw the body yesterday... (it) had a lot of injuries on the hands, the shoulder area, the head was swollen all around the frontal part... and there was a lot of blood oozing from the nose and mouth," Julius Juma, lawyer for Ojwang's family, told reporters and supporters gathered outside the city's morgue on Monday. Police Inspector General Douglas Kanja told reporters that Ojwang was arrested along with several others following a complaint by his deputy, Eliud Kipkoech Lagat. "There was a complaint that had been launched by the (deputy inspector-general) about his name being tarnished," Kanja said.Local media said the group were arrested over posts on social media.Ojwang was arrested in western Kenya but transferred more than 250 kilometres (150 miles) to Nairobi, "without proper orders from the court", the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said on Monday.

The move was evidence of "bad faith and malice in the arrest", the LSK said, adding that it refuted "any proposition that his death was an accident".Amnesty International earlier said Ojwang's death "must be urgently, thoroughly and independently investigated".Kenyan authorities have been accused of a harsh crackdown on critics of the government, with more than 80 illegally detained since the June 2024 protests, according to rights groups -- some just for sharing cartoons or satirical images of President William Ruto.Former attorney general Justin Muturi, who says his own son was illegally detained by security forces during the protests, said the circumstances surrounding Ojwang's death were "not just suspicious, they are outrageous"."They insult the intelligence of Kenyans and raise very serious questions about the conduct and accountability of our law enforcement agencies," he wrote on X.