ODM Demands Ruto To Act On Ojwang’s Murder Or Sever Ties
The opposition Orange Democratic Movement has vowed to cut ties with the government United Democratic Alliance unless the death of blogger and Homa Bay teacher Albert Ojwang is thoroughly investigated.
An autopsy performed on Tuesday confirmed that Ojwang died from strangling.
This is a far cry from the police’s original allegations that he died of self-inflicted injuries caused by bashing his head against the wall of his cell at Nairobi’s Central Police Station.
Godfrey Osotsi, ODM Deputy Party Leader and Vihiga Senator stated that the party will not hesitate to abandon the Memorandum of Understanding made with the UDA in order to promote broad-based administration.
“The postmortem that has been done so far indicates that this young man died of neck compression, and those injuries were inflicted through torture, so we require to get proper answers from the police,” said the Vihiga senator.
Ojwang died barely 24 hours after being picked up from his home on Saturday, June 7, and driven 400 kilometers to Nairobi, where he died the next morning.
His arrest was apparently based on a complaint by Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat, who claimed Ojwang had defamed him online.
The National Police Service interdicted the Officer Commanding the Central Police Station, as well as numerous other junior officers who were on duty throughout the time Ojwang was in police cells.
However, Otsoti insisted that the axe be dropped from a height.
We signed an MOU with UDA and agreed that we are not going to have abductions and killings like this one. If we do not get proper answers from the UDA government, we will consider this as a breach of the MOU we have with UDA – ODM Deputy Party Leader Godfrey Osotsi pic.twitter.com/D8CH8Y8o2e
— Kenyans.co.ke (@Kenyans) June 10, 2025
“Instead of terminating the services of junior police officers, we want to see senior police officers – the Deputy Director General and even the Director General – they should resign or be fired by the President.”
Osotsi stated that when ODM signed an MoU with UDA, they pledged that there would be no abductions or illegal murders.
The bilateral framework of cooperation, signed on March 7, 2025, at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), sought to address Kenya’s social, economic, and political concerns.
However, it was unrelated to power-sharing or the 2027 elections.
Osotsi stated that if the UDA administration fails to fulfill its half of the bargain, specifically by providing correct explanations for Ojwang’s killing, ODM will withdraw from the agreement.
“If we do not get proper answers from UDA side, we will consider this as a material breach of the MoU we have with UDA. ODM we are very serious about this.”
Osotsi’s strong talk came hours after his boss, Raila Odinga, wanted to know who ordered Ojwang’s detention and who took him up from his home in Homa Bay.
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“Ojwang now joins the horrifyingly long list of young and defenseless Kenyans whose lives have been taken too soon, in brutal and senseless circumstances, at the hands of the police,” Raila said in a statement.
Statement on the Death of Albert Ojwang pic.twitter.com/cMEdilzwTP
— Raila Odinga (@RailaOdinga) June 10, 2025
Raila emphasized that such tragedies bring enormous anguish to the victims’ families and undermine the authority and trust of the police and the state.
“When citizens can no longer tell the difference between the two forms of injustice—police injustice and mob injustice—we are staring at the reality of failure as a nation,” Raila warned.
Osotsi asked: “Why is the DIG still in office?” Why are you going for junior officers, terminating their services, and their bosses are still there?”
ODM Demands Ruto To Act On Ojwang’s Murder Or Sever Ties
