Killer squad boss? Officers linked to Lagat stormed Standard Group before Ojwang murder

Disturbing details have emerged linking Albert Ojwang’s brutal murder to a highly unusual police visit to the Standard Group offices in Nairobi, sparked by a fake newspaper front page headline wrongly attributed to the media house and implicating Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat. 

Two months ago, officers from the elite General Service Unit (GSU) stormed the Standard Group’s offices in Nairobi to investigate a fake front-page headline circulating online, bearing The Standard’s branding and the provocative title, “The Richest Cop,” linked to Lagat. 

According to an official at the Standard Media Group, three officers in a white Toyota Probox, registration number KDD 055Z, identified themselves as GSU officers and pulled into the office parking lot for an hour-long interrogation.  “They were outright in their questioning; they wanted to know if the headline had been generated from The Standard and why it was tarnishing the name of DIG Eliud Lagat,” said the source. 

“They were clear from the very onset that they were officers from the GSU unit, and they were here to know if The Standard was behind the publication,” added the source. 

Lagat served as the Commandant of the General Service Unit (GSU) before his current role. Reportedly, after officials from The Standard explained that the said headline was fake, the three cops sped off from the company’s Mombasa Road premises, but it now appears that their probe would not end there. 

“It was curious to us from the word go why a headline that was screaming fake from a distance would warrant officers from a specialised unit to visit our offices to interrogate us. We smelled a rat, but still we cooperated with the officers,” said an official at The Standard. 

A vehicle search at the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) systems showed the Toyota Probox, registration number KDD 055Z, used in the mission bore a fake number plate.  According to official records, the number plate is registered to a black Subaru Forester under the name of Mutungwa Wambua. 

The Kenya Editors Guild President, Zubeida Kananu, has condemned the incident as a blatant case of media intimidation and an affront to press freedom. “There are proper channels for handling grievances of this nature. Storming a media house with armed officers under the pretext of investigating a headline is an act of utter intimidation. We strongly condemn these cowardly actions by the police,” said Kananu. 

Media freedom champion and lecturer George Nyabuga described the incident as media intimidation. 

“I suppose they had other hidden reasons to storm The Standard. How can you miss the correct headline of the day by The Standard? You just need to go to the streets and pick the right copy. I strongly feel they had other motives behind their unofficial visit,” said Prof Nyabuga. 

“And if anything, they possess all the tools and instruments to investigate. They don’t need to storm a media house,” he added. 

Kananu called for a thorough investigation into the heinous killing of Ojwang’ and urged Kenyan media houses to unite in defending press freedom. “Fake news is a challenge that even media houses continue to grapple with. It has affected many organisations, including The Standard Media Group. However, this cannot stop us from doing our job. We must confront this challenge together,” she added. 

Nyabuga urged media houses to remain steadfast and speak truth to power regardless of the challenges. “In this day and age, misinformation is a serious challenge. Tech-savvy people possess the skills to manipulate information and mislead the public. We must be wary of this,” added Prof Nyabuga. 

In recent days, The Standard has come under intense scrutiny from state agencies following its bold reporting on several public interest issues that have rubbed the state the wrong way. 

On May 31, journalists from the Standard Group were denied access to the State House, Nairobi, during the official visit of Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar. 

Now, Ojwang’s murder has ignited fury among civil society groups, who accuse the National Police Service of orchestrating State-sponsored killing under the guise of protecting senior officers’ reputations. 

“The Mafia Cop”, another fake headline falsely branded as from The Standard, began circulating recently and reportedly formed part of the reason Ojwang’ was murdered. 

A post-mortem on Tuesday showed Ojwang’, who died in police custody, was assaulted and suffered multiple body injuries. 

Government pathologist Bernard Midia, who led the autopsy, refuted earlier claims by the police that Ojwang had hit himself on the wall and died.