Things that begin on X should remain on X, but once lies, propaganda and political battles enter the platform, the people who understand how the system works have a duty to explain what happened.
This is the story of Albert Ojwang, from the online campaign that placed his name inside a dangerous security battle, to his arrest, detention and death.
Some parts of this account come from people familiar with the online campaign and the arrests, and several claims involving named individuals have not been tested in court.
To understand how Albert entered this story, you must first understand that there was already a war inside Kenya’s security sector, and this was not a small disagreement between junior officers.
It was a serious battle involving powerful figures, rival camps and competing interests, with one side determined to push Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat out of office.
The conflict was linked to wider political divisions between figures associated with the North Rift and those associated with the South Rift, meaning the online campaign was only one part of a much bigger fight.
At the centre of the campaign was a fake newspaper headline that described Lagat as a dirty police officer and claimed that he earned five times more than the President.
The figure used in the fake headline was Ksh. 25 million, and the message was meant to create anger, ridicule Lagat and convince the public that a senior police officer was earning an impossible amount of money.
The headline looked like something produced by a respected media house, but it was fake, and that made it more dangerous because ordinary users could easily mistake it for real journalism.
The people who wanted Lagat removed needed the message spread widely, and that meant they required people who understood how X campaigns are organised and pushed.
This is where a digital operative called Alvan Kinyua entered the picture.
Kinyua, who has been linked to political consultant Mutahi Ngunyi, was brought in to identify online teams that could push the campaign and keep the message moving across X.
His role was not necessarily to post every message himself, but to find people who already controlled networks of accounts, bloggers and online campaigners capable of making a hashtag or political message dominate the platform.
On X, such campaigns often involve several layers, with one person bringing the job, another person organising the money and instructions, and a larger group of accounts repeating the message until it appears organic.
Kinyua was the link between those who wanted the campaign and the online people who could make it visible.
He then approached a man known online as Czar Toretto, who controlled a strong digital team with the ability to push hashtags, shape conversations and spread political material quickly.
Czar accepted the job and began recruiting people who could take part in the campaign.
Among the people brought into the operation was Kevin Moinde, a young man from Kisii who was also a close friend of Albert Ojwang.
This friendship later became one of the most important links in the entire story.
Albert was not aware of the sensitive campaign against Lagat, and there is no clear evidence showing that he personally posted the fake headline from his own account.
What connected him to the campaign was an X account that he, Kevin Moinde and a woman had acquired together after contributing money.
The account was meant to handle online campaigns from time to time, allowing the owners to post political or commercial material without using their personal accounts.
That shared ownership later became the doorway through which Albert was dragged into the investigation.
The fake newspaper headline was posted from the account, and once investigators began tracing the people behind it, attention moved from the online post to the individuals connected to the account.
Kevin Moinde and Alvan Kinyua were arrested as investigators tried to establish who created the fake headline, who paid for the campaign and who had instructed the online team to target Lagat.
The pressure around the investigation was intense.
Kinyua was linked to Mutahi Ngunyi, and information from people familiar with the arrests indicates that he was never formally booked and was released.
That part of the story remains important because Kinyua was the person who brought the campaign to the online team, meaning he was closer to the source of the job than the young people later questioned over the account.
Kevin Moinde was taken to Kamukunji Police Station, where investigators demanded that he explain who was operating the account and who had posted the fake headline.
The atmosphere around the case was extremely tense, with Lagat determined to find the original source of the campaign and identify everyone connected to the message.
During questioning, Moinde named Albert Ojwang as one of the people connected to the account.
He also named the woman who had contributed money to acquire the account and who was also questioned after being arrested, we also don’t know what she told authorities but I am trying to lay my hands on their statements.
Two days after Moinde’s arrest, police officers went for Albert.
That timing is important because Albert appears to have been the last known owner of the account to be arrested, meaning investigators had already questioned other people before turning their attention to him.
The question that remains unanswered is what exactly investigators believed Albert knew.
Was he being arrested because they believed he had posted the headline, or was he being pressured to reveal the people who had financed and organised the campaign?
The original job came through Alvan Kinyua, who then contacted Czar Toretto, who then brought in people including Kevin Moinde.
Albert was several steps away from the people who started the campaign, yet he became the person who was arrested, transported to Nairobi and later died in police custody.
That is the part of the story that makes his death even more troubling.
Kevin Moinde has never publicly explained what he told investigators during his detention, what questions he was asked or why Albert’s name was brought into the case.
He has remained silent, even after people repeatedly asked him to speak about the events that led to the arrest of his close friend.
Moinde must eventually explain what happened, not because the public is interested in online gossip, but because Albert died after his name entered the investigation.
He must tell the public whether he identified Albert as an owner of the account, whether investigators forced him to name people and whether Albert was ever accused of personally creating or posting the fake headline.
He must also explain whether investigators already knew about Alvan Kinyua and Czar Toretto, or whether the inquiry focused mainly on the people who had access to the account.
Albert was arrested after a digital campaign he may not have known about placed his name inside a security battle involving powerful people.
He was taken from his home, transported to Nairobi and detained over an online post connected to a shared account.
He later died in police custody.
The authorities initially gave an account suggesting that Albert had injured himself inside the police station, but that version was widely challenged after questions emerged about injuries found on his body and the events surrounding his detention.
The case stopped being a simple investigation into a fake headline and became a national story about police custody, abuse of authority and the killing of a young man who may have been used as the weakest link in a much larger operation.
Albert’s death cannot be understood by looking only at the final hours inside the police station.
The story began earlier, with a security war, a fake headline, a paid online campaign, a chain of digital operatives and investigators searching for the people behind the message.
At one end of that chain were powerful people fighting for control and influence.
At the other end was Albert Ojwang, a young man connected to an X account through friendship and shared ownership.
Somewhere between those two ends, Albert became the person police officers decided to arrest.
He never returned home alive.
Kenyans must now press Alvan Kinyua to speak because he is alive, he was close to the source of the job and investigators appear to have handled him with kid gloves before turning their attention to people further down the chain.
He must tell the country who gave him the assignment, why Lagat was being targeted, how much money changed hands, who paid it and why the people closest to the source of the campaign were released while Albert Ojwang ended up dead in police custody.
The recent attempts to introduce fresh stories and side dramas into this case look like an effort to move attention away from the people who started the campaign and protect someone higher up the chain.
Alvan Kinyua must speak plainly because this was no longer just an online job once Albert was arrested and killed.
Who gave him the job, who funded it, how much was paid and why was he treated so gently by investigators?
