The church fell silent as Nevnina Onyango stepped forward, her voice steady but her heart heavy. Before her lay the casket of her husband, Albert Ojwang a teacher, a blogger, a father whose life was cut short in the most unimaginable way.
It was at the requiem mass held at Ridgeways Baptist Church in Nairobi where Nevnina finally opened up about their life together, recounting how they met, the bond they shared, and the hollow space his absence has left behind.
“He told me, ‘I love you. See you soon,’” she recalled, her voice catching. “That was the last thing he said to me.”
The mourners sat in stillness, many unable to hold back tears as Albert’s family, friends, and colleagues took turns remembering a man they described as warm, determined, and deeply devoted to his loved ones. The grief in the room was palpable punctuated by soft weeping, lingering silence, and the occasional outburst of emotion too heavy to contain.
For Nevnina, the pain is deeply personal, made heavier by the weight of single parenthood. “Our son is only two,” she said. “He doesn’t know what’s going on. It’s heavy… really heavy.”
She remembered Albert not just as a partner, but as her biggest encourager the man who always pushed her to be bold and speak her truth. “He believed in courage. He told me to be strong, to never back down. I want to honour that strength,” she said. “Albert, I love you. I hope you can hear me.”
Among those who spoke was Albert’s mother, Eucabeth Ojwang, who broke down as she recounted the last time she saw her son alive. It was just after lunch had been prepared at their home in Homa Bay when police officers arrived and took Albert away. “He didn’t even get to eat,” she said, her voice trembling. She remembered how scared he looked as the officers approached. When she asked if he had done anything wrong, he simply replied, “I have done nothing wrong.”
Those words now echo in her memory haunting and final. By the next day, Albert was dead, found in a police cell at Nairobi’s Central Police Station.
His death has sparked outrage and renewed scrutiny on custodial deaths and police accountability. But inside the church that day, it wasn’t politics or policy on people’s minds it was loss. The kind that strips a family of its centre and leaves unanswered questions in its wake.
For Nevnina, for Albert’s mother, and for the young son who still doesn’t understand where his father has gone, the pain is far from over. What remains now is the pursuit of answers and the hope that Albert’s final words won’t be the end of his story.
