Central Police Station OCS Samson Talam has been arrested in connection with the death of blogger Albert Ojwang. This is after IPOA’s probe determined that Ojwand died on June 9 while in custody at Central Police Station.
Ojwang died on June 7 inside a cell at Nairobi Central Police Station. He had been arrested after a top police boss, Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat, complained that Ojwang had insulted him online.
Police first claimed Ojwang hit his head on the wall and died. But a postmortem on June 10 show Albert Ojwang was beaten and strangled to death.
IPOA Investigations Implicate OCS Talam
IPOA’s investigations, however, indicate that on June 8, the CCTV System inside Central OCS Talam’ office was interfered with.
“The DVR power cable was disconnected, the DVR logs indicated that the operating discs had been changed and formatted on June 8 at 07:28hrs and 07:32 hrs.”
Talam was arrested in Eldoret on Friday, June 13. He was taken to the IPOA offices in Nairobi.
Now IPOA is treating Talam as a key suspect. Another senior cop PC James Mukhwana, plus a technician accused of disabling the station’s CCTV, have also been arrested.
Another Senior Cop, CCTV Technician Arrested
On Friday, Constable Mukhwana appeared in court for the first time. He will stay in custody until his bail hearing next week.
Detectives say early investigations show Mukhwana and others who are still missing may have helped plan and carry out Albert Ojwang’s killing. And that tampering with CCTV footage was a cover up.
Mukhwana has not yet responded to the charges. But his lawyer asked the court to release him on bail, saying he turned himself in when called.
DCI boss Amin Mohamed had earlier recommended that Talam be arrested. And that the OCS be treated as the main suspect because he was in charge of the station where Ojwang allegedly died.
Talam Denies Involvement in Albert Ojwang’ Death
Talam denied any involvement in Ojwang’s death.
He told IPOA that the blogger was already badly injured when he arrived at the station. He claimed he refused to book someone in such a state and instead rushed him to Mbagathi Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. But the DCI boss does not believe his version. He said Talam’s story does not add up..
Police boss Douglas Kanja has apologized to the public for the earlier false statement.
By Vivian K.