Is the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) toothless? A question asked by many following the events of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang’s death in the hands of police.

Let’s start by understanding what IPOA entails. This body was established in 2011 by the IPOA Act.

The authority is headed by a director who’s also the CEO, a civilian. The CEO and director and any other commissioner should not be a serving police officer and they should not have retired from the National Police Service in the last 5 years.

IPOA’s composition

The current IPOA CEO is Elema Halake.

The IPOA headquaters is situated in Nairobi as per the requirement by the IPOA Act, that it should be  located in Kenya’s capital city.

Now interestingly, IPOA as a body can sue and be sued by citizens as well.

The Authority’s main objective according to the IPOA Act is to hold police accountable to the public.

It works hand in hand with Article 244 of the Constitution of Kenya which states that the National Police Service shall strive for the highest standards of professionalism and discipline among its members.

Now let’s come back to Ojwang’s case; according to IPOA, the reason for his arrest was a complaint by the Deputy Inspector General of police Eliud Lagat.

According to the IPOA Act, the Authority is mandated with investigating any death or serious injury while in police custody as a result of police action.

At the time of recording this explainer; it was first believed that Albert Ojwang’ was murdered by police officers but the latest development is reportedly that three people he shared the cell with who were civilians beat him up to death.

IPOA is not mandated to investigate civilians.