By Reuters
Kenyan President William Ruto said on Wednesday that a blogger arrested last week had died “at the hands of the police”, reversing official accounts of his death in the latest case to draw scrutiny to the actions of the country’s security services.
Ruto urged caution in drawing conclusions from the death of blogger Albert Ojwang, which follows years of extrajudicial killings and disappearances that the president has repeatedly promised to stop in the face of rising public anger.
Police initially said Ojwang, 31, was arrested in western Kenya on Friday for allegedly defaming the country’s deputy police chief online, and died “after hitting his head against a cell wall”.
His wounds, including a head injury, neck compression and soft tissue damage, pointed towards assault as the cause of death, according to pathologist Bernard Midia, who was part of a team that conducted an autopsy.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority, the
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