A Central police station police officer arrested in connection with the death of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang will remain in custody for seven more days.
This is after Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Ondieki ruled that he will deliver a ruling on an application to have Police Constable James Mukhwana detained pending conclusion of investigations into Ojwang’s death on 20th June 2025.
Mukhwana was arraigned at Milimani Law Courts under a custodial application seeking to have him detained for 21 working days to allow police to conclude investigations.
According to an affidavit by Senior Assistant Director of Investigations with Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) Abdirahaman Jibril, Mukhwana was involved in the murder of the teacher on 8th June 2025.
“Preliminary investigations have revealed that the respondent, together with other persons who are at large, was highly likely involved in the planning and execution of the brutal fatal assault of the deceased inside the cells at the central police station,” Jibril told the court.
The investigator added that preliminary investigations have revealed that the Mukhwana, together with other persons at large, was highly likely involved in a deliberate cover-up by tampering with CCTV footage at the central police station.
It is alleged that the officer was the cell sentry on the night in question with access to the cells where the deceased was brutally assaulted to death.
The court heard that the persons suspected to have been involved in the planning and execution of the murder of deceased are yet to be arrested
Preliminary investigations have revealed that after the fatal assault of the deceased, Mukhwana, together with other persons at the station, highly likely caused to be made false entries in police records with a view to misleading any subsequent investigations into the death of the deceased
The investigator added that on 8th June 2025, IPOA investigators found that the CCTV system had been interfered with, the DVR power cable was disconnected and the DVR logs indicated that the operating discs had been changed and formatted on 8th June 2025 at 07:28:43hrs and 07:32:29hrs.
“Preliminary investigations reveal that there is high likelihood that the respondent, together with other persons who are at large organized for the tampering of CCTV to conceal what had transpired on the night of 7th to 8th June 2025 when the deceased was brutally assaulted to death in order to mislead any subsequent investigations into matter
Ojwang was pronounced dead at Mbagathi County Hospital on 8th June 2025, two days after his arrest at his home in Homabay County and subsequent transfer to Nairobi.
The police had initially claimed that Ojwang died of self-inflicted injuries. However, the same was contradicted by a pathologist report which claimed the deceased had a lot of injuries and his neck showed signs of strangulation.
