IPOA is now at the centre of suspicion after reports emerged linking one of its own officers to an alleged cover-up in the case of Albert Omondi Ojwang. The oversight body, which is supposed to act independently and hold police officers accountable, is being accused of failing the very people it was created to protect.
According to Monday’s Standard publication, a technical officer from IPOA may have helped tamper with critical evidence by allegedly participating in the deletion of CCTV footage at the Central Police Station in Nairobi.
This development has caused serious doubt about IPOA’s neutrality and its ability to investigate cases involving the police. It raises the question of whether some officials within IPOA are working with the same police officers they are supposed to monitor.
The CCTV footage reportedly deleted is believed to be the one that could have shown what happened to Albert while in custody.
Without it, the truth remains hidden, and the family is left in the dark, demanding answers that now seem harder to get.
Meanwhile, another CCTV video from Mbagathi Hospital has made things even more disturbing. The footage shows three police officers wheeling Albert into the hospital on a stretcher. He appeared lifeless, and two nurses at the hospital confirmed his death. A death notification was filled soon after.
This image sharply contradicts the earlier police version of events, which claimed that Albert had banged his head on a wall and collapsed. The gap between the official story and the hospital footage is too wide to ignore, and it has triggered more public anger.
Albert was not a criminal, he was a young teacher and a father, arrested over claims that he posted critical messages about a senior police officer online. What followed was a long trip from Homa Bay to Nairobi, detention at Central Police Station, and then death under circumstances that now look increasingly suspicious.
An earlier autopsy had shown clear signs of physical assault, including head and chest injuries and signs of strangulation. Yet instead of clarity, the public is now witnessing what appears to be deliberate efforts to destroy evidence.
With these new claims against IPOA’s own staff, the public is now questioning whether the agency is still capable of delivering justice. If people lose trust in IPOA, then the last barrier between citizens and police brutality could collapse.
The government needs to take immediate action, not just to investigate Albert’s death, but also to clean up any rot within IPOA itself. Anything less will only confirm what many Kenyans already fear that justice in this country can be silenced and erased, just like CCTV footage.
