Khalwale calls on Murkomen to resign
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale has asked the Ministry of Interior and Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen to step aside immediately following the death of Albert Ojwang, who died in detention hours after being arrested by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers.
Speaking during a session in the Senate on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Khalwale stated that the CS is not fit to run the Interior docket.
“You have the audacity to come and face the parliament of Kenya and tell Kenyans, ‘you don’t see and you don’t know.’ For the respect of this young man (Albert Ojwang), can you immediately resign? You are not fit to be in that docket,” he stated.
This is after Murkomen shifted the blame from his ministry to investigative departments over Albert Ojwang’s death.
While appearing in the Senate on June 11, 2025, Murkomen said the law is clear on who should shoulder such blame. He noted that those eyes have been given to investigative authorities under Article 245 of the Constitution.
“Unfortunately, the Constitution did not give me the eyes to see who is culpable; those eyes have been given to investigative authorities under 245 of the Constitution,” Murkomen told senators.
“I cannot direct the Inspector General of the National Police Service. Article 245(4) of the Constitution is very clear that the Cabinet Secretary responsible for police service, which in this situation is myself, may lawfully give direction to the Inspector General with respect to any matter of policy for the National Police Service,” he said.
The autopsy
This comes amid public outcry after Ojwang’s autopsy revealed that he was assaulted and suffered multiple body injuries.
Pathologist Bernard Midia, after completing an autopsy on his body on Tuesday, June 11, 2025, revealed that Ojwang did not hit himself on the wall as earlier reported in a police report.
“When we examined the pattern of the injury, especially the trauma I found on the head… hitting against a blunt substance like a wall would have a pattern,” he stated.
Midia pointed out that in the event of one hitting themselves on a wall, frontal bleeding on the head would be seen.
“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,” he explained.
The pathologist, who conducted the procedure alongside the family’s representative, Mutuma Zambezi, dismissed the possibility of Ojwang injuring himself.
“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 added.
The post-mortem findings contradict a police report on Sunday, June 8, 2025, where Ojwang was reported to have hit his head on the wall of a cell at Central Police Station.
