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Demonstrations take place almost a year after several killed and seized by the Kenyan police in the events of financial bills.
The demonstrators went down to the streets of the capital of Kenya Nairobi to express their fury for the death of a blogger arrested by police last week, while the police guard of the country police reported that 20 people had died in detention in the last four months.
Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds gathered near the capital’s parliamentary building on Thursday to protest the death of Albert Ojwang, a 31 -year -old blogger arrested in the west city of Homa Bay last week for criticizing the deputy chief of the country Eliud Lagat.
Police had initially declared that Ojwang died “after hitting the head against a cell wall”, but the pathologist Bernard Midia, who is part of a team that has proceeded to an autopsy, said that injuries – including a head injury, compression of the neck and damage to soft tissue – reported the assault as a cause of death.
On Wednesday, President William Ruto admitted that Ojwang died “in the hands of the police”, overthrowing previous official stories of his death, affirming in a statement that it was “heartbreaking and unacceptable”.
The Kenyan media reported on Thursday that a police officer had been arrested for the death of Ojwang.
The reports of the demonstrations in Nairobi, Malcolm Webb of Al Jazeera, said that Ojwang, who had written on political and social issues, had published online on the alleged role of Lagat in a “corruption scandal”, in which the deputy chief of the police had already been involved by an investigation into the newspaper.
“He is angry with the people he was detained for this, then a few days later, who died in a police station,” said Webb, who added that people called to Lagat to be held into account, and “persisting in throwing stones on the police despite a volley of tear gas after the next ones to be fired.”
Protests from the finance bill: one year on
The case has highlighted the country’s security services, which have been accused of extrajudicial murders and forced disappearances for years.
Thursday, the independent president of the police supervisory authority Issak Hassan, told legislators that there had been “20 deaths in police custody in the past four months”.
The authorities are now carrying out an official investigation into the death of Ojwang.
Wednesday, Inspector General Douglas Kanja apologized for the police who had previously suggested that Ojwang died by suicide, saying to an audience in the Senate: “He had not struck his head against the wall.”
Ojwang’s death occurs almost a year after several activists and demonstrators were killed and taken by police during Protests from the financing bill – Many are still missing.
The rallies have led to calls for the abolition of Ruto, which was criticized for the repression.
Amnesty International said that Ojwang’s death in detention on Saturday “must be urgently, carefully and independent”.
