Kenyan medical examiners stated Tuesday that suicide was improbable in the death of Albert Ojwang, a 31-year-old man who died in police custody, sparking widespread protests and anger.
Ojwang had been arrested for social media posts accusing police deputy inspector-general Eliud Kipkoech Lagat of corruption.
Authorities initially claimed he died by hitting his head against a wall in his cell.
However, government pathologist Bernard Midia, one of five examiners, told reporters that Ojwang’s injuries were “unlikely to be self-inflicted.”
The Law Society of Kenya noted Ojwang was transferred over 250 kilometers to Nairobi “without proper orders.”
Midia confirmed the cause of death as “head injury, neck compression,” with other injuries pointing towards assault, including “self-defense injuries.”
Following the postmortem, protesters marched, demanding Lagat’s immediate resignation, calling him the “main suspect” in what they allege was a murder.
Police spokesman Michael Muchiri confirmed five officers were removed from duty for “transparent investigations” and that the “suicide theory has been banished.”
Ojwang’s father expressed his family’s heavy burden.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga remarked that Ojwang “joins the horrifying long list” of Kenyans whose lives were taken by police in brutal circumstances, undermining police and state credibility.