Just days before blogger and high school teacher Albert Ojwang died in police custody, The Standard Media Group revealed that officers from the General Service Unit (GSU) allegedly raided its newsroom. The reported raid came after a fake newspaper front page surfaced online, targeting Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat with serious allegations of corruption and tribal favoritism.
The incident happened on April 22 at the Standard Group headquarters. A Toyota Probox bearing the registration number KDD 055Z entered the compound, but investigations showed the plate number was registered to a Subaru Forester. Inside the Probox were individuals who identified themselves as GSU officers. They claimed they were investigating a viral newspaper headline titled The Richest Cop, which had been shared widely on social media.
This counterfeit front page accused DIG Lagat of accumulating illegal wealth with the help of tribal allies allegedly placed in strategic positions within the police service. It also claimed he used his network to siphon money for personal gain.
KTN News, part of the Standard Group, reported that the officers met with the company’s leadership. After verifying that the fake cover was not published by The Standard, the officers left without incident. But that was not the end of it.
Soon after the raid, another fake front page with the headline The Mafia Cop made rounds online. Around the same time, Albert Ojwang was arrested in Homa Bay and later transferred to Nairobi. He died shortly afterward while in police custody, sparking outrage and demands for accountability.
Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja later told the Senate that Ojwang had posted content on social media targeting high-ranking police officers. One of his posts closely resembled the claims made in the viral fake front page. He accused DIG Lagat of corruption, tribal bias, and involvement in a multimillion-shilling property deal in Dubai. Ojwang also claimed that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) was investigating Lagat, though the EACC denied having such a case.
Following Ojwang’s online posts, DIG Lagat filed a formal complaint with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on June 4. This triggered an investigation by the Serious Crimes Unit. Police used digital forensic methods, with assistance reportedly from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), to trace the origin of the X (formerly Twitter) accounts spreading the content.
Kevin Moinde, one of the individuals allegedly linked to the posts, was arrested in Kisii. During questioning, he named Ojwang as one of four contributors. However, in a surprising turn, the Communications Authority later stated that it does not have real-time access to social media accounts and is not legally permitted to share such data with law enforcement.
By Risper Akinyi