IG Kanja defends transfer of Ojwang to Nairobi following arrest
Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja has defended the decision to transfer slain social media influencer Albert Ojwang from Homa Bay to Nairobi after his arrest.
Speaking before the Senate Plenary on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Kanja told lawmakers that Ojwang’s reported offence had been committed in Nairobi, which justified the move.
“The DCI is going to answer very clearly as to the reasons why Albert was transported from Homa Bay to Nairobi. But it’s because the offence was committed in Nairobi,” he said.
While addressing the Senate, Kanja also responded to questions about why Ojwang was placed in a cell alone. He said the investigating team needed to explain that further. Senators also questioned why police chose to rush Ojwang to Mbagathi Hospital instead of Kenyatta National Hospital, which is closer and better equipped.
Kanja responded that both hospitals are public facilities capable of providing top-notch medical care.
“This is something that the investigating team needs to let us know,” he said.
Deadly X post
Ojwang, popularly known as @pixelpenerai on X, was arrested for a series of posts accusing Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat of corruption within the National Police Service.
Kanja said the posts mentioned that Lagat had strategically positioned his most trusted officer to control DCI desks, occurrence books, and traffic shifts, thereby manipulating revenue streams and intelligence flow.
One of the posts even featured a photo of Lagat next to Joseph Chirchir, a senior officer in Nairobi, with the caption: “EACC investigating top cop after purchase of Ksh335.9 million home in Dubai” and the phrase “Eliud Lagat Mafia police.”
Kanja said these posts were considered defamatory, unsubstantiated, and of public concern, prompting an immediate investigation under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) assigned the case to cybercrime officers, who included Corporal Abdul Hamman Hussein, Police Constables Dennis Kanyoni, Samuel Kamau, and Milton Mwanzi.
The complaint was formally recorded at Vigilance House, the police headquarters, by Hillary Mutai, the officer in charge of the Serious Crime Unit, alongside Constable Mwanzi. The team also reached out to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to verify if DIG Lagat was under investigation, but the agency confirmed he was not.
This led to the issuance of an arrest warrant.
Investigators then contacted the Communications Authority of Kenya to retrieve the registration details linked to the X accounts: @pixelpenerai and @Kevin Mwisicheres. The Authority confirmed that the accounts were associated with the two individuals.
The case has sparked widespread public outrage following an autopsy that contradicted the police report on Ojwang’s death. The initial police report had claimed that Ojwang hit his head on a wall while in a cell at Central Police Station.
However, government pathologist Dr. Bernard Midia, who conducted the post-mortem alongside a representative from the family, Mutuma Zambezi, said the injuries did not support this version of events. He explained that if Ojwang had hit himself against a wall, there would have been frontal bleeding on the head.
“But the bleeds that we found on the scalp, on the skin of the head, were spaced, including on the face, sides of the head, and the back of the head,” Midia said.
He further added that injuries were also found on other parts of Ojwang’s body, including the upper limbs and trunk. These, he noted, were inconsistent with self-inflicted harm and pointed to possible assault.
“When we tie up together with other injuries that are well spread on parts of the body … including the upper limbs and the trunk … then this is unlikely to be a self-inflicted injury,” he said.
