How police have turned cells into death traps for leaders' 'enemies'

The disturbing revelation by Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya, detailing how he intervened to save Emurua Dikirr MP Johanna Ngeno from being sexually abused in a police cell, has cast a harsh focus on the rot within the police detention system.

Speaking in the wake of the controversial death of blogger and teacher Albert Ojwang, Natembeya, a former provincial administrator, exposed an alleged plot involving senior police officers who had given explicit instructions for the MP to be sexually assaulted while in custody.

“I have been in government for many years, and when the state wants to punish someone without evidence, they throw you into a police cell with hardened criminals posing as suspects,” he said.

The incident occurred during Natembeya’s tenure as Rift Valley Regional Commissioner, after MP Ng’eno was arrested for dismantling a roadblock erected by security officers monitoring movement in and out of the Mau Forest.

Natembeya claimed he received word from the County Criminal Investigations Officer (CCIO) that a directive had come from DCI headquarters, taking over the case and insisting on the MP’s continued detention.

“I asked the CCIO to release him on police bail, but he declined, saying the matter had been taken over by his superiors,” Natembeya recounted.

That night, the governor said he was informed that men had been planted in the cells, posing as inmates, with the intention of sexually assaulting the MP.

“They started mocking him, saying he smelled like a woman. They were going to sodomise him,” Natembeya said.

“I warned the CCIO that if they allowed the abuse to happen, I would call a press conference and expose him. He said his hands were tied.”

To prevent the attack, Natembeya and his team fabricated a threat of possible station violence from the MP’s supporters and used it as a pretext to evacuate him from the cell.

“We transferred him all the way to Nakuru to save him from that humiliation and disgrace,” he said.

A seasoned security officer, Natembeya noted that Ojwang could have faced similar abuse if he had lived to tell the tale.

“If Ojwang didn’t die, his story would have been buried. They would have violated him, threatened him, and silenced him,” he claimed.

In Ojwang’s case, police tried to cover up by claiming that he had hit his head against the wall. However, autopsy report revealed that he was tortured and strangled in police custody.

In another chilling admission, the governor confessed that he contemplated committing suicide rather than be held in certain police stations after he was arrested three weeks ago by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

“They were planning to take me to either Kilimani or Kileleshwa Police Station. I swore that if they did, I would have killed myself before they could do anything absurd to me. I knew what was going to happen,” he said.

Fortunately, the OCS at the EACC facility intervened and offered him a bed instead.

Last week, Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) Chairperson, Issack Hassan, told the National Assembly Committee on Security that 20 people have died in police custody in the past four months. He was addressing the committee as part of the ongoing investigation into Ojwang’s death.

Even before Ojwang’s case is heard in court, another suspicious death has occurred.

Calvins Onditi, a fisherman from Homa Bay, was found dead in a cell at Kipasi Police Post, his trousers wrapped around his neck.

Police claimed he died by suicide after being arrested for allegedly being found naked in a goat shed.

However, his family and local leaders believe there was foul play. Homa Bay County Police Commander Lawrence Koilel said Onditi might have taken his life out of shame. But many remain unconvinced.

These deaths echo the 2021 case of Benson Njiru Ndwiga and Emmanuel Mutura Ndwiga, the Kianjokoma brothers who died after being arrested for violating a 10 p.m. curfew in Embu County.

Their bodies were later found at Embu Level 5 Hospital mortuary. Initially, police claimed the brothers had jumped out of a moving vehicle.

However, a witness contradicted that account, stating that Emmanuel was first assaulted and rendered unconscious, prompting his brother to intervene only for both to be beaten and left to die.

Ojwang’s murder also rekindles memories of the 2012 case of British national Alexander Monson, who died under suspicious circumstances in a Diani police cell.

Monson, the only child of British aristocrat Lord Nicholas Monson, had been arrested for allegedly smoking cannabis.

Police initially claimed he hit his head against a wall. However, an autopsy revealed he died from blunt trauma to the head and scrotum. The case, which was investigated by current DCI Director Mohamed Amin, remains a symbol of police brutality and cover-ups.

The cases give a tragically familiar pattern of abuse, official denial and a families left to seek justice against an institution meant to protect.

Ironically, the man at the centre of Ojwang’s murder –Eliud Lagat – went round police stations last year promising to improve detention conditions, but what are meant to be safe holding spaces have become death traps.