Senator Cheruiyot urges DIG Eliud Lagat to step down
Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot has called upon Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Eliud Lagat to resign following the death of Albert Ojwang.
Ojwang died in detention hours after being arrested by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers.
Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Cheruiyot stated that Lagat should resign until investigations are concluded.
“I advise the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr Lagat, who is my friend, that nobody has said that you’re guilty, but for the country to appreciate what really happened, he should step aside until investigations are concluded,” he stated.
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
“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.
Social media post
According to the Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja Ojwang tweeted on X, stating that Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Eliud Lagat was involved in corruption within the National Police Service, leading to his arrest on June 7, 2025.
“Specifically, the published post alleged that Eliud Lagat had strategically placed his most trusted officer in charge of DCI desks, occurrence books, and traffic shifts to control revenue streams and intelligence flow,” he stated.
“Another post depicted him alongside Joseph Chirchir, a senior officer stationed in the Nairobi area, under the caption ‘EACC investigating top cop after purchase of Ksh335.9 million home in Dubai,’ accompanied by the DIG’s photograph and the phrase ‘Eliud Lagat Mafia police,’” he added.
Furthermore, Kanja stated that the social media posts were deemed defamatory, necessitating immediate investigation.
