Killed over someone else’s post? Albert Ojwang’s digital footprints challenge police narrative

Speaking in the Senate while under oath, Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja claimed that Albert Ojwang’ had been arrested for publishing a defamatory post on X in violation of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act.

However, an open-source investigation of Ojwang’s social media activity did not find any posts linking his X account to the defamatory hashtag. On the day of the alleged campaign, Ojwang’s now-deleted X account participated in a different campaign unrelated to the one referenced by the police. These findings contradict the account presented by IG Kanja at the Senate.

Ojwang’ had several accounts across social media platforms. However, the only remaining active ones are his Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts after his X account @finest_likoni was deactivated in unclear circumstances.

The last activity on this account was on June 6, 2025, a day before his arrest. According to Kanja, investigators found Ojwang’s X account to have posted “similar defamatory content.”

Our analysis of his social media accounts challenges IG Kanja’s claim. We found that Ojwang’s account did not publish posts with the hashtag #MafiaPolice, as the IG first claimed.

The absence of posts from Ojwang’s account linking him to the campaign calls into question his arrest in the first place. Searching for keywords used in the campaign does not reveal any links to Ojwang’s @finest_likoni account to the #MafiaPolice hashtag the police were investigating.

In addition, the @finest_likoni account was involved in a separate hashtag, #TransformingKajiado alongside other influencers on June 3, 2025, when #MafiaPolice was being promoted. The hashtag heavily features positive commentary about Kajiado governor Joseph Ole Lenku, and was also posted by other similar accounts.

On June 5, Kelvin Moinde, an X influencer and blogger, was arrested in Kenyenya, Kisii County, on charges of false publication, the same charge that was brought against Ojwang’.

Moinde’s profile is similar to Ojwang’s in many aspects – young men with a considerable social media presence on Facebook and X, which they used to generate income.

Moinde’s account on Facebook, Kevin Moishyleez, has over 1000 followers and his posts consist of personal pictures, brand and event marketing photos, news updates and football content.

Moinde and Albert knew each other as they were friends on Facebook and followed each other on Instagram.

Until June 5, 2025, Moinde actively posted using the Facebook account and linked his other social media accounts on his profile, including the now-deactivated X account @kevimoishyleez referenced above.

In contrast, an X account linked to Ojwang’s co-accused, Kevin Moinde, with the handle @kevimoishyleez, was among those involved in the #MafiaPolice campaign on June 3, 2025. One post features a fake Daily Nation front page below, with the caption, “Joseph Chirchir’s arrest by EACC was no accident.

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IG Kanja stated that Kelvin Moinde had provided a statement after interrogation that disclosed the names and respective X handles of four other individuals in the hashtag campaign – Albert Ojwang’, Dorcas Mawia, Douglas Marigiri and Peter Mbugua. However, while there is evidence of Moinde’s involvement, there is no such evidence from Ojwang’s now deleted account of any such posts.

A fake Daily Nation front page used in the #MafiaPolice campaign on June 3, 2025, this headline was also shared by the @kevimoishyleez account before it was deactivated.

The Police investigative team requested additional information from the Communications Authority regarding another X account handle, @kevimoishyleez, with IG Kanja saying, “The team’s analysis of Ojwang’s X account revealed that he had posted similar defamatory content and consequently, on June 7, 2025.”

However, there is no evidence of Ojwang’s involvement, or any posts from his account with the hashtag, further raising questions regarding the basis of his arrest.

While there exists a possibility that Ojwang’ may have deleted the offensive posts, everything that we have observed since his arrest and murder points to the possibility that he did not have advance knowledge of his impending arrest and therefore a reason to delete any post.

DCI boss Mohamed Amin, while responding to questions from the Senate, indicated that the DCI often arrest suspects under the Cybercrimes Act in their physical locations, to avoid the possibility that these suspects might delete digital evidence.

The phone call recording

One of Ojwang’s last phone calls, at 8:52 pm before he called his wife at 9:24 pm, was a brief conversation with an unknown individual who appears to have been a friend or colleague of Ojwang’s.

The caller informs Ojwang’ of the arrest of Kevin Moinde and promises to visit him at Central Police Station. Ojwang’ responds, asking, “Have you ever been arrested?”, followed by a now ominous question: “Will I be safe?”. His voice trembles as he speaks. The audio recording ends shortly after.

While on the call, Ojwang’s colleague asks an important question that may point to his innocence – he was not involved in the hashtag campaign in question. “Ni tag ulifanya ama? (Is this because of a hashtag you promoted?)”, the caller asks Ojwang’, to which he responds that he doesn’t know.

Albert Ojwang’s close friend shares what happened at Central Police Station. #JusticeForAlbertOjwang pic.twitter.com/lrH0AmLQ2h

— BRAVIN YURI (@BravinYuri) June 9, 2025

He seems clueless about the reasons for his arrest, hours after he was apprehended in Homa Bay County and driven to Nairobi.

What do Ojwang’s digital footprints tell us about him and his murder in police custody?

A football fan, teacher and family man

Albert loved football, and in particular, his favourite club, Manchester United. He regularly wrote positive posts about the Red Devils on his Facebook account. On his X account, the header image was of a United’s jersey. In fact, Ojwang’s nickname, according to the people who knew him, was ‘Alberto Januzaj’, after former Manchester United player Adnan Januzaj.

He also seemed to cherish his family. Albert was born on July 7, 1994, to Meshack Ojwang, who worked as a quarry digger in Malindi before moving to his home in Homa Bay County.

Ojwang graduated from Pwani University with a Bachelor of Education in February 2023, as seen in a celebratory post on his Facebook account, which also reflected his part-time job as an influencer.

He frequently shared posts about politics, sports, and other marketing brands from restaurants to betting companies to his over 5,900 thousands of followers. His Instagram account, albertojanuzaj2, was similarly used for influencing but had a smaller following than his Facebook account, which seemed to be where he chiefly posted aside from X.

Ojwang’s final post on Facebook, on June 1, 2025, reflected his passion as a teacher. He re-shared a picture of himself from 2019, standing in front of a blackboard, with a caption reading, “Teaching is a call”.

Geolocated to Kilifi

Ojwang’ ran an X account, @finest_likoni, whose details show a direct connection to him. First, the account’s name, Mwalimu Mkuu Alberto Januzaj, matches Ojwang’s professional qualifications. Alberto Januzaj was the nickname he went by to his friends, and was the one he used on his Facebook account.

Secondly, the account’s location is Kilifi, Kenya, where Pwani University – Ojwang’ alma mater is located. He also shared a number of photos of himself in Malindi, Kilifi, on his Facebook account. Finally, the profile had a header image of a Manchester United player, Ojwang’s favourite football team as mentioned above.

All these coinciding factors provide a high degree of certainty that the account @finest_likoni was run by Albert Ojwang before it was suspiciously deactivated after his arrest on June 7, 2025.

This archived link to the account before its deactivation is still available because it was involved in a previous influence operation, which was investigated and exposed by Piga Firimbi in 2023.

The fatal hashtag

Although both Ojwang’s and Moinde’s accounts are deactivated, Google indexed data shows that, similar to their Facebook account, the users were active on X until June 6 and 7, respectively, the dates on which they were arrested in Homa Bay and Kisii.

It also shows that they were influencer accounts used to promote a myriad of campaigns ranging from sports betting brands, events, to political content such as #WhyKumiBilaBreak, #NimehamaMtaa, and #AtwoliLegacyInLeadership, as shown below in the case of @kevimoishyleez.

The posts which led to Moinde and Ojwang’s arrest, according to the police, were tweets implicating DIG Eliud Lagat and another senior officer named Joseph Chirchir over alleged corruption within the National Police Service.

The fake front pages, including the one in the posts below, were circulating on June 3, 2025, with the first post with the hashtag shared at exactly 8 am by @_KAISERTONIZZ, a now-deactivated account. The Standard newspaper flagged the front page as fake three days later on their official X account on June 6, 2025.

The #MafiaPolice influence operation ran for hours on June 3, 2025, with hundreds of posts using the hashtag and its usage plummeted by June 4, 2025. This sudden meteoric trend of its usage is consistent with other hashtags Piga Firimbi has investigated, which use dis/misinformation to gain traction online.

Although a police officer, Constable James Mukhwana, has been formally charged with the planning and execution of Ojwang, questions abound over the safety of arrested persons under police custody.

Public anger is mounting with calls for the immediate resignation of the complainant in the case against Ojwang, the Deputy IG of Police, Eliud Lagat. These new revelations are a further indictment of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the National Police Service’s claim that Ojwang’s arrest was lawful.