Digital defiance: How Kenyan youth are using tech to speak to power

An activist protests outside the Nairobi Funeral home following Albert Ojwang's death while in police custody [Jonah Onyango/Standard]

The brutal death of 31-year-old schoolteacher and blogger Albert Omondi Ojwang has torn through Kenya’s collective conscience with chilling familiarity. His crime? A tweet allegedly deemed “offensive” to Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat. For this, he was abducted, tortured, and killed.

While police initially claimed Ojwang died as a result of hitting his head against the wall at Central Police Station, Nairobi where he was being held after being picked from their Kakoth home, Kokwanyo village in Homa Bay County on June 7, 2025, the autopsy painted a different picture, the 31-year-old died as a result of assault.