Officer in Ojwang's case to be detained for a week

A junior police officer attached to the Central Police Station, Nairobi, will remain in custody for seven more days as a court considers a request by the State to detain him for a further 21 days. 

James Mukhwana, who was the cell sentry on the night of June 8, 2025, is under investigation in connection with the murder of Albert Omondi Ojwang’.

On Friday, Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Ondieki directed that the officer be held at Capitol Hill Police Station pending his ruling on an application filed by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), which seeks to detain him for three additional weeks to finalize investigations into the alleged murder.

“Based on the lengthy submissions made before this court by the State and defence lawyers, the suspect, Mukhwana, is to be detained until June 20, 2025, at Capitol Hill Police Station to enable the court to write its ruling in the matter,” Magistrate Ondieki ruled.

The court issued the directive after officer Mukhwana was arraigned in court but was not charged with murder after IPOA filed a miscellaneous application requesting that he be held for 21 more days as investigation into the death of Ojwang' are not yet complete. 

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Through Abdirahman Jibril, the Senior Assistant Director of Investigations at IPOA, the authority informed the court that investigation into the death of the influencer Ojwang' are complex since Mukhawa and colleagues interfered with the scene scrime in a bid to hide their involvement in the gruesome killing of the deceased.  

The court heard IPOA needs more time to investigate how the crime was planned and executed due to the seriousness of the offense and complexity of the investigations.

" IPOA needs to interview other witnesses, including police officers from that station, and officer Mukhwana being a colleague of the officers, if released on bail, he is very likely to interfere with and influence the witnesses," Jibril stated.

"Moreover, because key persons involved are police officers wielding police powers, who from preliminary investigations, have engaged in a web of complex cover up employing the blue code of silence, we require time to unravel that complex web through conduct of investigations and if released on bail the officer is highly likely to interfere with the investigations."

The IPOA  also revealed the investigation conducted so far shows that Mukhwana and others officers killed Ojwang inside the cells after assaulting him.

 “Our preliminary investigations have revealed that the Respondent (Mukhwana), together with other persons at the Central Police Station, brutally assaulted the deceased inside the cells, leading to his death,” Jibril stated. 

IPOA's officer further disclosed efforts by those involved to cover up the alleged crime.  

The authority found that:“The CCTV system had been interfered with the DVR power cable was disconnected, and the DVR logs indicated that the operating discs had been changed and formatted on June 8, 2025 at 07:28:43hrs and 07:32:29hrs.”

There is a “high likelihood,” the officer Jibril says, that Mukhwana and others “organised for the tampering of CCTV to conceal what had transpired on the night of June 7 and 8 2025 when the deceased was brutally assaulted to death in order to mislead any subsequent investigations into matter.”

Additionally, IPOA says that: “False entries were made in police records with a view to misleading any subsequent investigations into the death of the deceased.”

Jibril emphasized that Mukhwana had been “in constant communication with people within and outside the Central Police Station immediately before, during and after the commission of the crime,” indicating possible planning and coordination in the fatal assault.

According to Jibril, preliminary investigations revealed a grim sequence of events: On June 4, 2025, a complaint was filed by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr. Eliud Lagat, alleging that he was the target of “continuous false and malicious publications” on an X (formerly Twitter) account under the username Pixel Pioneer. 

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) referred the case to the Serious Crimes Unit, which later identified Albert Ojwang as a person of interest.

Ojwang was arrested on June 7, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. in Homa Bay County by a DCI team. 

 He was initially booked at Mawego Police Station before being transferred and placed in custody at Central Police Station in Nairobi. 

IPOA officer states that: “From the evidence collected by the Applicant, the deceased was placed in custody by the Respondent(Mukhwana) who held the keys to the cells where the deceased was detained.”

At approximately 1:40 a.m. on June 8, 2025, Ojwang was found unresponsive, lying in a pool of blood inside the cell. 

He was rushed to Mbagathi Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. 

IPOA  filed a medical report from Mbagathi Hospital showing that Ojwang 's head, face were swollen, with blood oozing from the back of his head , mouth and eyes when he was taken at 2 am for treatment by police ment from central police station.

" He was unresponsive, no spontaneous breathing, entire body was cld, face swollen, multiple bruises, scalp cut on the parieto occipital region and bruises on the limbs," Dr. Shah Mitali from Mbagathi states in his report adduced in court by IPOA.

"On examination, no signs of life were noted. No cardiac activity appears to be notable. The medical officer on call assessed Ojwang and confirmed him to be a corpse brought in dead," reads the medical report in part.

Irene Misiko a nurse on duty at Mbagathi Hospital on June 8,2025 however issued a notification of death to the police officers who took Ojwang to hospital who were informed to proceed with the corpse to Kenyatta police station for reporting and then to the mortuary of their choice.  
 
A post-mortem conducted on June 16, 2025, concluded the cause of death to be: Head injury due to blunt force trauma, neck compression and multiple subcutaneous bruises all over the body

Citing ongoing risks to the integrity of the investigation, officer Jibril says that "Mukhwana is a police officer attached to the locus in quo of the crime and therefore can interfere with the investigations and tamper with the evidence at the station.”

"The complexity of the investigation in the matter and the likelihood of interference of the investigation and the existence of a “blue code of silence” among implicated officers we urged the court to deny the officer bail,"  

Further, IPOA Officer has opposed the request by Mukhwana's lawyer Danstan Omari to be freed on bail pending probe saying he is likely to interfere with witness interference. 

Omari says that IPOA has not given compelling reasons to warrant his client be detained for three more weeks. 

"We urge the court to free officer Mukhwana on bail. He is ready and willing to abide by all conditions set by the court," Lawyer Omari said.

Officer Jibril however opposed the request by Mukhwana saying that justice in the matter would be served if the officer is detained pending investigations. 

“We require time to unravel that complex web through conduct of investigations,” it adds, arguing that release on bail could compromise witness cooperation.

In his affidavit, mentioned public outcry following Ojwang’s death: “This matter has elicited considerable public anger and outrage… including from the Senate, the National Assembly and even the President of the Republic of Kenya.”

Mukhwana was arrested on June 12, 2025, and held at Capitol Hill Police Station. IPOA is requesting his continued remand to allow for retrieval and forensic analysis of CCTV data.

IPOA also says that it needs more time to seizure of police documents, forensic examination of mobile phones of the suspects involved, completion of sample analysis from the Government Chemist and further witness interviews

 “It is in the interest of justice and the rule of law that the Respondent is detained to allow completion of independent and impartial investigations,” Jibril stated.