Ojwang death: DPP approves murder charges against Central police boss Talaam, 5 others
Central Police Station OCS Samson Talaam before the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi on June 16, 2025.
Central Police Station boss, Samson Talaam, and five others, including three police officers, are to be charged with the murder of teacher Albert Ojwang.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Renson Ingonga, approved murder charges against Mr Talaam, who has been interdicted, as well as police constables James Mukhwana and Peter Kimani.
Teacher Albert Ojwang who mysteriously died in a police cell.
The three officers appeared before the High Court in Kibera alongside John Ngige Gitau, Gin Ammitou Abwao, and Brian Mwaniki Njue.
However, the suspects did not plead to the charge as two of them did not have lawyers to represent them.
Justice Diana Kavedza postponed the plea-taking to tomorrow, June 24, and directed the court’s deputy registrar to find advocates for Mr Kimani and Mr Gitau.
Mr Ojwang was killed on the night of June 7–8, 2025 at Central Police Station, a few hours after he was picked up by police officers from his parents' home in Lida, Homa Bay County, and driven to Nairobi.
The killing sparked protests as Kenyans called for the resignation of Deputy Inspector General of Police, Eliud Lagat. Mr Lagat had filed a complaint with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) regarding social media posts allegedly made by Ojwang.
Mr Lagat eventually stepped aside to allow the investigation to proceed.
"Consequently, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has approved murder charges against six individuals. The suspects include the following police officers”, the DPP said in a statement.
James Mukhwana, the main suspect in the murder of Albert Ojwang arraigned at Milimani Law Court on June 13, 2025.
The information sheet filed before the High Court in Kibera stated that the six, jointly with others not before the court, had murdered Ojwang.
In an affidavit filed before a magistrate's court in Milimani on Friday 13, Mr Abdirahman Jibril, a senior assistant director of investigations at the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa), stated that the assault on Ojwang appeared to have been planned, as Mukhwana was in constant communication with persons both inside and outside the police station.
Ojwang’ was arrested on June 7, 2025, and was booked at Mawego Police Station at around 2:30 pm.
He was later transferred to Nairobi and booked at the Central Police Station at around 9:32pm by Mukhwana, who held the keys to the cell.
At around 1:40am, Ojwang was found unresponsive in a pool of blood inside the cell. He was rushed to Mbagathi Hospital, where he was pronounced dead following an assessment.
A post-mortem conducted on June 10, found that Ojwang had died of a head injury due to 'blunt force trauma, neck compression and multiple subcutaneous bruises all over the body'.