Police constable arrested over blogger's death is in custody, say Kenyan media
Kenyan authorities on Thursday arrested a police constable over the death in custody of a political blogger last week triggered angry protests in the capital Nairobi, local newspapers The Nation, The Standard, and The Star reported.
The death of 31-year-old Albert Ojwang is the latest case to throw a spotlight on the country's security services, who have been accused of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances for years.
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eNCA
3 hours ago
- eNCA
Second officer arrested over Kenya custody death
A second officer has been arrested in connection with the death of a teacher in custody in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the police watchdog said Friday, a case that has sparked nationwide outrage. Albert Ojwang, 31, died in custody last weekend after being arrested for criticising a senior officer online. Police initially said Ojwang had fatally injured himself by banging his head against a wall, but a government pathologist later found the wounds were "unlikely to be self-inflicted". His death has reignited anger over a wave of abductions and heavy-handed policing during anti-government protests last year. Protesters marched on parliament on Thursday, some throwing stones and police firing tear gas. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) watchdog said in a statement that Samson Talaam, the head of the central Nairobi police station where the incident occurred, had been arrested along with an unnamed civilian. A police official confirmed to AFP that Talaam had been arrested in the western city of Eldoret. Another officer from the same Nairobi station, Constable James Mukhwana, appeared in court earlier in a case under the charge of the IPOA. The watchdog asked for three weeks to complete its investigation, telling the court Mukhwana was present on the night Ojwang was processed by officers. Earlier in the week, police spokesman Michael Muchiri said five officers had been removed from active duty, to "allow for transparent investigations". President William Ruto has called for a swift investigation, and promised on Friday that the government would "protect citizens from rogue police officers". The IPOA recently reported 18 people had died in police custody in the past four months. Protesters have called for the resignation of Deputy Inspector-General Eliud Kipkoech Lagat -- the officer Ojwang was accused of criticising.
TimesLIVE
21 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
Police constable arrested over blogger's death is in custody, say Kenyan media
Kenyan authorities on Thursday arrested a police constable over the death in custody of a political blogger last week triggered angry protests in the capital Nairobi, local newspapers The Nation, The Standard, and The Star reported. The death of 31-year-old Albert Ojwang is the latest case to throw a spotlight on the country's security services, who have been accused of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances for years.
TimesLIVE
2 days ago
- TimesLIVE
Kenya's budget to weigh revenue growth against public outrage
Kenya's finance minister will present a budget on Thursday aimed at boosting revenues to service debt while avoiding tax measures that triggered the kind of deadly protests that rocked East Africa's biggest economy last year. President William Ruto's administration has been struggling to narrow the fiscal deficit and govern under a heavy total debt-to-GDP ratio of about two-thirds, well above the 55% level considered a sustainable threshold. The government is seeking new sources of funding after last year's countrywide protests forced it to pursue austerity measures and scrap planned tax hikes worth more than 346 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.7bn). 'Kenyans cannot bear more tax,' finance minister John Mbadi said on Wednesday. 'For the first time, we have not added taxes in the current finance bill as has been the case before.' Critics have accused the government of using the budget to increase indirect taxes and infringe on privacy by empowering the tax authority to spy on people's bank accounts and mobile money transactions. But Mbadi said on Wednesday the revenue authority must be empowered to collect taxes to run the country. In place of hiking individual taxes, Mbadi is looking to widen the tax base, improve compliance and cut spending, said John Kuria, a tax specialist and partner at Kody Africa. 'They understand that people are not very happy, especially with the government and how the taxes are being used,' Kuria said. Despite government attempts to tighten expenditure and crack down on fraud, 'I think we're still going to have a significant funding shortfall,' he said. While the proposed budget outlines credible measures to reduce the fiscal deficit, the challenge lies in implementation, which Kenya has struggled with historically, said Shani Smit-Lengton, senior economist at Oxford Economics Africa. This often results in midyear revisions through supplementary budgets, which erode fiscal credibility, Smit-Lengton told Reuters via email. Kenya said in March it had applied for a new lending programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after abandoning the final review on the previous IMF programme. In February it joined a fast-growing club of African nations that have gone to the market to borrow cash to pay off maturing debts in a bid to smooth out liabilities and ring-fence critical expenditures like health. 'This year, the stakes are higher: the government must demonstrate improved budget discipline to bolster its case for a new IMF programme, while also managing public sentiment to avoid social unrest. 'Achieving this balance will be critical to maintaining both investor confidence and domestic stability,' Smit-Lengton said, adding that the government's target of reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.5% in the next financial year was overly optimistic.
