Charlene Ruto mourns murdered Albert Ojwang, shares condolences: 'Painful'

Days after the gruesome murder of teacher Albert Ojwang, Charlene Ruto, has called for a "generational ceasefire" to address the wave of intolerance and violence in Kenya.

During the closing session of this week’s leadership conversations, Charlene led the cohort of 106 members in a minute of silence to honour Ojwang.

“I have struggled with deep moments of reflection for the past few days to try and find context around what happened. This is a painful, unfortunate and overwhelming loss and we share our deepest condolences to his family,” she wrote on X.

As we concluded this week's cohort on leadership conversations, I requested the 106 young leaders present to stand with me and observe one minute of silence for the life of Albert Ojwang.

I have struggled with deep moments of reflection for the past few days to try and find… pic.twitter.com/ipowr9n38K

— Charlene Ruto (@charlruto) June 13, 2025

Her call for a "generational ceasefire" urged Kenyans to interrogate the environment and culture being created for future generations, amid a wave of regretful incidents and growing extremism. 

“These regretable incidents, extremity and growing intolerance should challenge all of us as a nation to interrogate the environment and culture we want to live in and create for the generations coming after us,” she said. 

While some, leaders praised her engagement, saying, others accused her of hypocrisy. 

Ojwang’s arrest and subsequent murder stemmed from a social media post deemed defamatory by Deputy Inspector Genera Eliud Lagat, leading to his detention. 

Hours later, he was pronounced dead. 

On Thursday protesters took to the streets, calling for the budget to be rescinded until justice is served and those responsible held to account. 

“No justice, no budget!” the angry youths chanted in unison, condemning police brutality and the spate of extrajudicial killings witnessed across the country. 

“Resign and surrender to the police,” the protesters demanded, noting that as long as Lagat is in office, he will prevent justice from taking its due course.

“Our country has become a State where police terrorise us. The same police who are supposed to protect our property and to protect us. They are not police. They are criminals wearing police uniform,” one protester said, adding that the brutality being perpetrated by police must end.

Several people were injured during the demonstrations in Nairobi as officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protestors.