Former police spokesperson Charles Owino has defended resignation calls against Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Eliud Lagat over the death of Albert Ojwang’.
Ojwang’ died while in police custody on Sunday. He was arrested after DIG Lagat filed a defamation complaint against the deceased.
Owino now holds that those seeking Lagat’s removal should wait for appropriate legal procedures to take force and allow investigations to determine his fate.
He further believes that Lagat’s censure is linked to a deeply rooted witch hunt against him by a few political players who are not appeased by his leadership position.
“He has gone through alot of attacks in the last two months. We have had politicians saying their person was removed to put another one in. It’s like something coordinated for a purpose that he should not be in that office,” he told Citizen TV on Tuesday.
“He has a right as an individual to complain when he thinks he’s getting maligned.”
The ex police spokesperson added that those who need to be blamed are the officers manning the Central Police Station, where Ojwang’ was booked, and not Lagat, who only made his complaint to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
“Calling for Lagat to step down at this stage is too early because the person who has actual responsibility of custody is the OCS and his officers,” he said.
“This thing is escalating because this guy died in police custody and it is giving the police the wrong image. Everyone seems to be targeting Lagat.”
Police claimed that Ojwang’ died from self-inflicted injuries by hitting his head on his prison cell walls.
Owino however cast doubt on the report, arguing that lack of evidence will continue to poke holes into the details being intimated by the police.
“You can only come up with a theory of someone hitting his head if he was with two or three other people who could have witnessed. If there was nobody how do you come up with this theory?” he posed.
“The autopsy will be very important but most importantly those officers who were at the report office should be able to tell us what happened. Could some people have gotten their way into the cells at night?”
An autopsy on Ojwang’s body failed to happen on Monday afternoon and was rescheduled to Tuesday, June 10.
Meanwhile, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has called for transparency from the police in furnishing the public with credible information on the mysterious death.
LSK president Faith Odhiambo told IG Kanja to release the names of the officers who have been interdicted, including those who moved Ojwang’ from Homa Bay county to Nairobi.
