Willis Otieno: Police stations are fast becoming slaughterhouses
By Aloys Michael, September 24, 2025Human rights and constitutional lawyer Willis Otieno has called for urgent police reforms to hasten security and accountability.
In an X post on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, he described the continuous recording of cases of deaths of young Kenyans while in police custody as a chilling sign of systemic rot within the service.
“Albert Omondi Ojuang (31), Simon Warùi (26), and Ouma Wanda, three young lives cut short inside police stations in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kitale. Police stations, meant to be sanctuaries of law, are fast becoming slaughterhouses,” the statement read in part.
Otieno maintained that the police should not translate to insecurity against the citizens they are meant to protect, saying that a state that kills its young people in custody is not secure.
“Security cannot mean insecurity for the very wananchi it is meant to protect. A state that murders its youth in custody is not secure,” he said.
Also watch: Murkomen vows to end police brutality.
In his proposed changes, the lawyer called for the establishment of citizen oversight committees in police stations and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) to set standards in the police service.
“This is why Kenya urgently needs police reforms: citizen oversight committees in every police station. Elected Sheriffs (OCPDs) are accountable to the very people they serve. A shift from force to service; building trust, not fear,” Otieno argued.
Otieno’s remarks come amid heavy scrutiny on the service and push for accountability, even as the government commits to compensating the victims of the protests and dissenters.
Meanwhile, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has launched an investigation into the death of Simon Warui, the latest case of a person who died while in police custody in Mombasa.
In a statement released on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, IPOA confirmed that a post-mortem had been carried out. The autopsy showed that Warui’s death was caused by cardiorespiratory collapse following a fracture and dislocation of the neck. The report stated that the injuries were consistent with a fall from a height.
More importantly, human rights defender Hussein Khalid brushed off the police explanation surrounding Warui’s death.
He said police had told his organisation there was no CCTV camera in the area where Warui is said to have died.
However, he revealed that his team had obtained video footage showing the exact spot, inside the toilet cells, where the incident is said to have happened.
“According to the police, this is the wall that Simon scaled, then jumped down and died. The wall is of normal height, and the floor is tiled,” Khalid said.