Kenya’s police chief has suspended the head of a police station and all officers who were on duty when a man who had been detained for “false publication” died in custody.
Albert Ojwang was arrested for a post on X in the western town of Homa Bay and then driven 350km (220 miles) to the capital, Nairobi, his father Meshack Opiyo told journalists.
“While in custody, the suspect sustained head injuries after hitting his head against a cell wall,” a police statement said. He was rushed to hospital “where he was pronounced dead on arrival”.
The director of rights group Amnesty International’s Kenya branch told the BBC that the death of Mr Ojwang was “very suspicious”.
Amnesty said in a statement that the death of the young man, described as a teacher and blogger, “raises serious questions that must be urgently, thoroughly, and independently investigated”.
Senior police officer Stephen Okal is quoted by the Star newspaper as saying what happened in the cell was “an attempted suicide”.
It is not clear what the charge of “false publication” referred to, but Mr Opiyo told online news site Citizen Digital that the arresting police officer said “Albert had insulted a senior person on X”, the social media platform.
A police statement said officers were suspended to allow Kenya’s independent oversight body to conduct an “impartial investigation”.
Speaking at a press conference, police chief Douglas Kanja said the police would give the investigators all “necessary support” to resolve the case.
He said Mr Ojwang was arrested in Homa Bay on Friday, then transferred to Nairobi for questioning and booked at the police station on Saturday.
According the police chief, Mr Ojwang was found unconscious during a routine inspection of the cells, and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
He said the arrest had been prompted by a complaint by deputy police chief Eliud Lagat “about his name being tarnished”.
“It was on that basis that investigations were actually being carried out,” the police chief added.
The head of the Independent Police Oversight Commission (Ipoa), Ahmed Isaack Hassan, has said they will do “everything to ensure justice is served for the family and for all Kenyans”.
Mr Hassan, who attended the press conference, called on officers not to interfere with the investigations.
A post-mortem examination was scheduled to be carried out on Monday.
The death of Mr Ojwang, who was reported to have been 31, has sparked outrage online and calls for protests to demand police accountability.
Referring to the circumstances of his arrest, Amnesty Kenya director Irungu Houghton said it was “quite shocking” that Mr Ojwang was not booked in at the local police station after being detained, but was instead taken on a long journey.
He called on the independent investigators to secure what he described as “the crime scene” at the police station in Nairobi.
Ojwang’s detention and death comes at a time of rising concern about how some government critics are being treated.
Last week, software developer Rose Njeri – who created a tool to help people oppose a government finance bill – was charged with violating a cybercrime law.
