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Egypt Independent
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Egypt Independent
Kenya hit by protests sparked by teacher's death in police cell
CNN — Outrage over the death of a Kenyan teacher and activist in police custody sparked protests in the capital Nairobi this week after doctors refuted a police claim that he had died in his cell from a self-inflicted head injury. The protests first erupted on Monday, a day after Kenya's National Police Service said Albert Ojwang died while in custody from 'head injuries' after 'hitting his head against the cell wall.' Ojwang's death further enrages Kenya's youth, who have railed against the disappearance of dozens of anti-government critics since a protest movement forced the withdrawal of a controversial finance bill last year. Demonstrators on Thursday were confronted by police who deployed teargas in an attempt to disperse them. Protesters chant anti-government slogans as they march to the National Police Service headquarters demanding the resignation of senior officers following the death of Albert Ojwang in police custody. Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images Ojwang, 31, was a teacher and father whose 'last known communication was a plea for bail,' according to Amnesty Kenya. Local newspaper The Daily Nation described him as an 'influencer' who was known 'for his strong online presence and social media campaigns.' Ojwang was arrested on Friday, a police statement said, 'for the offense of false publication.' On Sunday, he was 'found unconscious,' it added, 'during a routine cell inspection.' Six police officers are being investigated, police said, according to national broadcaster KBC. Further explaining the arrest, Kenya's police chief, Douglas Kanja, stated on Wednesday that his deputy, Eliud Lagat, had earlier filed a complaint alleging that Ojwang accused Lagat of corruption in a post on the social media platform X. Protesters have called for Lagat's removal. On Wednesday, government pathologist Bernard Midia contradicted the police's account of what caused Ojwang's death, saying that an autopsy 'found serious injuries to the head,' as well as 'features of neck compression' and 'multiple soft tissue injuries that were spread all over the body.' 'The cause of death is very clear,' Midia told reporters, noting that the pattern of the injuries 'are pointing towards assault' and are 'unlikely to be self-inflicted.' He said that the autopsy was carried out by a team of five pathologists. The head of Kenya's police, Kanja, on Wednesday retracted the initial claim on Ojwang's cause of death. 'I tender my apology on behalf of the National Police Service for that misinformation,' Kanja told a parliamentary committee on national security. Protesters chant slogans surrounding the statue of Kenyan leader against the British colonial rule, Dedan Kimathi, as they march demanding the resignation of senior officers. Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images 'It is not true… he did not hit his head against the wall,' the police chief told lawmakers, stating that the initial assertion was based on the preliminary information he received. Kenya's police watchdog, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has begun an inquiry into Ojwang's death. Kenyan President William Ruto said Wednesday that he'd received the news of Ojwang's death 'with utter shock and dismay.' 'This tragic occurrence, at the hands of the police, is heartbreaking and unacceptable,' Ruto said in a statement, calling for a 'swift, transparent, and credible investigation.'
The Independent
12-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
China's new AI app DeepSeek is trying to erase our genocide from history, Uyghurs warn
DeepSeek has had a meteoric rise in the growing world of AI, becoming a strong competitor to US rival ChatGPT. But for Xinjiang 's Uyghurs, who are facing an alleged genocide, the rollout of China's newest chatbot was just another way to remove their 12 million people from history. 'The Chinese government is trying to erase the Uyghur people by employing AI to mislead the public,' Rahima Mahmut, who fled China in 2000, told The Independent. Ms Mahmut, who has not heard from her family for eight years, and learnt her brother was locked up in a mass-internment camp for two of those, had reason for concern. The 'world-leading AI assistant', as it described itself, was designed to give 'helpful and harmless responses' and has been downloaded over three million times worldwide. But when asked 'are the Uyghur's facing a genocide', the chatbot asserted the claim was a 'severe slander of China's domestic affairs' and 'completely unfounded'. 'We firmly oppose any country, organisation, or individual using so-called human rights issues to interfere in China's internal affairs,' it said. For Ms Mahmut, 'so-called human rights issues' meant fleeing her hometown of Ghulia after seeing her neighbours and friends locked up en-masse in 1997. She was escaping Beijing 's 'strike hard' campaign which saw thousands of arrests, as well as executions, in response to a growing separatist movement across Xinjiang. Since then, the US, UK, Canada and Netherlands have accused China of committing genocide in the region, where millions of Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, live. The declarations followed several reports that found evidence of China sterilising women, interning people in camps, and separating children from their families. In 2018, a UN human rights committee claimed China was holding up to a million people in 'counter-extremism centres' in the northwestern province. Dr Adrian Zenz, a leading expert in Beijing's Xinjiang policies, said China was doing this to 'eradicate' the Uyghurs as an ethnic group and extinguish their dream of independence. 'They are culturally and religiously very different to the rest of China, they are a Turkic people, not Chinese, which is a problem for Beijing', Dr Zenz told The Independent. In the 1990s, Uyghurs saw their Turkic neighbours like Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan gain independence from Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union. This inspired a wave of nationalism across Xinjiang, and Uyghurs began talking about greater autonomy from Beijing, Dr Zenz said. 'This spooked the Chinese authorities, so they started to crack down on Uyghur society,' he said. The crackdown initially included shutting down mosques, arresting religious leaders and flooding Xinjiang with migrant Han-Chinese workers. These policies led to a vicious cycle of violence and today's policies which have seen China accused of genocide, Dr Zenz explained. China has claimed the campaign – and ongoing crackdown, was needed to prevent terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Indeed, DeepSeek said China was committed to the 'social harmony' and 'sustained development' of Xinjiang. Zumretary Arkin, 31, has not heard from her family since 2017, and like many Uyghurs, is aware her relatives are frequently detained and interrogated. So to see DeepSeek re-write her homeland's history was 'deeply worrying' and, like Ms Mahmut, represented a new way for China to erase Uyghur history. 'This sort of technology is replacing Google. It is where people go for research and information. This is deeply worrying,' Ms Arkin told The Independent. 'We have to remember DeepSeek is controlled by the Chinese government, and they are using it as another way to erase the Uyghur people,' she said. Dr William Matthews, who researches China's technological rise, said Beijing's censorship of DeepSeek should be 'extremely concerning' to us all. 'This app adds to China's ability to spread censorship around the world. It should be concerning to us all as it becomes a popular platform,' he told The Independent. 'It is directly linked to the interests of the Chinese state. There is an inherent danger in something like this. 'These apps are extremely powerful and influential and will become the way we find out information.' Ms Mahmut, who now spends her time in London making Uyghur music while reflecting on the slow strangulation of her culture, said: 'The assertion that the claim of Uyghur genocide is 'completely unfounded' is not only false. 'It is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities who have been subjected to horrific atrocities.'
