In a touching video clip seen by the writer, Albert’s father, Meshack Ojwang, is seen and heard pleading with the youth to let the family take the body home directly.
With a heavy heart, Meshack begged the young men to stop their plans and allow the burial program to continue peacefully. “Let us just go home. Leave all this to God.
Don’t take the body to the station,” he pleaded. He explained that Albert’s mother was deeply hurt, had not eaten anything, and was emotionally broken.
“She is suffering. Please, help us mourn peacefully,” he added.
However, his words did not convince the determined youth.
They responded emotionally, saying that Albert was not only a son to Meshack and his family but also their brother. “We are hurting too,” one of them said.
“He belonged to all of us. We want to mourn him our way.”
The youths said they could not let Ojwang be buried without passing by Mawego Police Station—the very place he was first detained before being transferred to Nairobi, where he later died in police custody under unclear circumstances.
For them, it was a powerful way to protest and demand justice.
Despite the father’s painful cries, the crowd lifted Ojwang’s casket and marched with it to Mawego Police Station, singing and chanting in grief and protest.
After the symbolic stop at the station, they later carried him to his home for burial.
