The Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja, has revealed that the X account linked to Albert Ojwang went by the name "Pixel Pioneer".
While appearing before the Senate on Wednesday, June 11, Kanja revealed that the account, with over 13,000 followers, reportedly published false information that the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Eliud Lagat, was involved in corruption within the National Police Service.
One such post alleged that DIG Lagat had strategically placed his most trusted officers to be in charge of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) desks, the Occurrence Book (OB) desks and traffic shifts to control both revenue streams and intelligence flow.
Another depicted him alongside Joseph Chirchir, who is a senior officer stationed in the Nairobi area command, with a caption, “EACC is investigating top cop after purchase of a $2.6 million home in Dubai”, accompanied by the DIG’s photo and the phrase, ‘Eliud Lagat: Mafia Police’.
Kanja further revealed that these posts led to the complaint by DIG Lagat who felt defamed, after which he wrote to DCI seeking its help.
"These claims were found to be defamatory and unsubstantiated and of significant public concern, thereby necessitating immediate investigations under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act (5) 2018," Kanja said.
As a result, the DCI director, Mohammed Amin, assigned the investigations to the cybercrime unit detectives to lead investigations into the matter.
To verify these claims, the investigating unit wrote to the EACC to confirm whether DIG Lagat was under any investigations, as well as the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), to provide registration details and preserve posts associated with the X accounts.
After making the two requests, CA responded first on June 4, confirming that the account was active, and EACC followed up a day later, refuting claims of any investigations on the DIG.
The CA followed up later with more details of another X account, "Kevin Moishyleez", which led the investigating officers to identify the two suspects, Albert Ojwang and Kevin Moinde.
The two were later arrested, Moinde in Kisii on Thursday, June 5, and Ojwang a few days later on Saturday, June 7, hours before he would die in custody.
On Wednesday, June 11, Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen, IG Kanja, DCI boss Amin and IPOA deputy chairperson Ann Wanjiku appeared before the Senate to answer questions on the ongoing investigations after autopsy details revealed that Ojwang's death was not self-inflicted as the police had initially reported.
