"He had big plans for us", wife of late Albert Ojwang speaks out after his death in police custody

Albert Ojwang had returned home full of hope, a young man driven by vision, love and service to both his family and community.

Just weeks after formally introducing his wife Nevinina Onyango to his family in Kakoth village, Homa Bay County, Ojwang was taken away by police officers, never to return.

He was seated outside their home, sharing a quiet moment with his wife, when six officers arrived on three motorcycles.

They gave no explanation. They simply told him to accompany them. That was the last time his family saw him alive.

Ojwang’s return home in April marked a joyful chapter. He had married Nevinina and moved with her into a simba, a traditional Luo house for young men, that he had constructed earlier while working as a Board of Management teacher in Voi, Taita-Taveta County.

Upon their marriage, he honoured tradition by renovating the structure, plastering walls, repainting and upgrading the fittings to welcome his bride.

Their life together had only just begun.

Ojwang had just come from buying tree seedlings to beautify their compound. He was excited about farming, something he deeply believed could feed not only his family but also uplift others.

A seedbed next to their home held the promise of vegetables that could nourish and support more than just his household.

“He came back home with a plan. The seedbed was just the beginning,” said Nevinina, a nursing student at Thika School of Medical Sciences, who is due to graduate later this year as she talked to the Daily Nation.

In Kakoth, Ojwang was more than just a teacher or a farmer. He was a role model, especially to the youth who had begun abandoning agriculture in search of quick returns.

Village elder Benson Ojweke described him as someone with an industrious spirit and a gift for community building.
“Many young people have abandoned farming for quick but unfruitful ventures. Ojwang was different. His commitment to agriculture proved his industrious spirit. Though his project was still young, it held the promise of transforming lives,” Ojweke told the Daily Nation.

Ojwang’s own life journey had not been easy. An only child raised in humble circumstances, he worked hard through school and graduated from Pwani University in 2022.

That achievement became a beacon for local schoolchildren.

“His success gave our children hope. He had the potential to uplift this entire community,” Ojweke said.

Despite limited income, Ojwang supported his wife and parents. His uncle Joseph Okumu remembered that he had already gathered bricks to begin building a permanent home for his mother and father.

“He wanted to build for them before thinking of his own house,” said Okumu.

His mother, Eucabeth Adhiambo Ojwang, recalled with emotion how attentive her son was. “He would call nearly every day, asking if we were okay, especially if his father had eaten,” she said.

She explained that when the police officers came, the family believed he would return after any legal proceedings.

“Even if he had been jailed for life, I could have visited him. No one deserves to die like that,” she said. “I braved countless cold nights so he could go to school. That he should die like this is unspeakably cruel.”

What began as a dream-filled return home has now ended in silence.

A wife left without a husband, a mother without her son, and a community without the young man they believed would one day change their fortunes.

The seedbed still sits next to the house, but the hands that planted it are gone.