Omondi died of assault, “neck compression” in police custody, postmortem reveals

Pathologists have ruled out self-inflicted injuries and possible suicide in the murder most foul of Albert Omondi Ojwang as autopsy examination revealed he died from assault and “neck compression”, it has now emerged. not

It showed that the teacher-cum-blogger died from head injuries, neck compression and multiple soft tissue trauma effectively contradicting initial assertions by the National Police Service (NPS)  that he hit his head against the wall, saying if he had, the patterns would only have shown a frontal bleed.

According to government pathologist Bernard Midia, an analysis of the pattern of injuries during the postmortem conducted at the Nairobi Funeral Home pointed to assault.

“The pattern of injuries spread all over the body of Ojwang points towards assault,” Midia stated.

He added that the specimens from the postmortem results have been shared with the relevant investigating agencies for action.

“The specimen has been shared with other investigative agencies to assist in getting other pieces of evidence to corroborate with what we have just found,” he added.

While narrating the injuries, Midia, who said the extent cannot be shared with the press, ruled out the earlier version by the National Police Service (NPS) that the deceased injured himself by banging his head on the wall.

He explained that if he had done that, the pattern of the injuries on the head would be different.

“When I examined the injuries on Omondi’s head, he did not hit himself on the walls of the police cell. If he had, the patterns would have shown a frontal bleed, but the bleeds on the scalp were partially spread on the front of the head, the back, and the face. When we refer to the other injuries, then this is not self-inflicted injuries,” he explained.

The pathologist added that there were signs of struggle.

“We have found several injuries, and there were signs of struggle well described in the report for further investigations,” he stated.

Midia added that the family has agreed with the postmortem report.

The postmortem report comes as a contradiction to the earlier report issued by the police, which alleged that the deceased was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital after he banged his head on the walls of a police Cell at the Nairobi Central Police Station.

In a report issued by the NPS Spokesperson, Muchiri Nyaga, he stated that the police took the deceased to the hospital after they found him unconscious, while reports at the occurrence book indicate that his death was recorded at the same station one hour after his booking in.

Ojwang was reported dead on Sunday morning to his family, who were following up after his arrest at their home in Homa Bay at around 3 pm on Saturday.

The detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had informed his father to follow them at the station for more information about his arrest, even though one of the officers shared that he had been arrested over false publication about the Deputy Inspector General of Police (KPS) Eliud Lagat.