Otsoti: ODM to cut ties with UDA without clear answers on Ojwang's death

Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi speaks on the floor of the House on June 10, 2025. /SCREENGRAB

The opposition Orange Democratic Movement has threatened to sever ties with the ruling United Democratic Movement in the absence of thorough investigations into the death of blogger and Homa Bay teacher Albert Ojwang.

An autopsy examination conducted on Tuesday revealed that Ojwang died by strangulation, a far cry from initial reports by the police that he succumbed to self-inflicted injuries sustained by banging his head on the wall of his cell at Nairobi's Central police station.

Speaking on the floor of the House, ODM Deputy Party Leader and Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi said the party will have no qualms exiting the Memorandum of Understanding they signed with the UDA in the spirit of fostering the broad-based government.

"The postmortem that has been done so far indicates that this young man died of neck compression, and those injuries were inflicted through torture, so we require to get proper answers from the police," said the Vihiga senator.

Ojwang's death came barely 24 hours after he was picked up from his home on Saturday, June 7 and driven 400km to Nairobi where he died the following morning.

His arrest reportedly followed a complaint from Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat, who allegedly claimed Ojwang had defamed him online.

The National Police Service interdicted the Officer Commanding the Central police station and several other junior officers who were on duty during the peiod Ojwang was in the police cells.

But Otsoti said the axe should fall high up.

"Instead of terminating the services of junior police officers, we want to see senior police officers -  the Deputy Director General and even the Director General - they should resign or be fired by the President."

Osotsi said when ODM signed an MoU with UDA, they agreed that there were not going to be abductions or extrajudicial killings.

The joint framework of cooperation signed on March 7, 2025, at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), aimed to address social, economic, and political challenges facing Kenya, and was not related to power-sharing or the 2027 elections.

Osotsi said if the UDA government does not hold the end of its bargain, specifically on providing proper answers on Ojwang's death, ODM will exit the pact.

"If we do not get proper answers from UDA side, we will consider this as a material breach of the MoU we have with UDA. ODM we are very serious about this."

Osotsi's tough talk came hours after his boss Raila Odinga demanded answers on who ordered Ojwang's arrest and the identity of officers who picked him up from his home in Homa Bay.

"Ojwang now joins the horrifyingly long list of young and defenseless Kenyans whose lives have been taken too soon, in brutal and senseless circumstances, at the hands of the police," Raila said in a statement.

Known for boldly standing up to the government in light of human rights abuses, Raila pointed out that such deaths cause tremendous pain to victims' families and erode the authority and credibility of the police and the state..."and that is a significant step towards chaos and collapse."

"When citizens can no longer tell the difference between the two forms of injustice—police injustice and mob injustice—we are staring at the reality of failure as a nation," Raila warned.

Osotsi asked: "Why is the DIG still in office?" Why are you going for junior officers, terminating their services, and their bosses are still there?"