Kenya: No, Kenya's Deputy Police Chief Not Dead

12 November 2025
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Wanjiru Kamau

IN SHORT: A TikTok video claiming that Eliud Lagat has died is false. The video uses unrelated photos showing other hospitalised police officers. Evidence shows Lagat continuing with his duties.

A video is circulating on TikTok, one version with the caption: "Breaking news: DIG Eliud Lagat is dead."

Eluid Lagat is the Deputy Inspector General, or DIG, of the Kenya Police Service.

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The video shows a slideshow of photos accompanied by sombre music. The first image shows Inspector General Douglas Kanja and a female officer giving a fruit basket to a man in a hospital bed whose face is blurred and who has a cast on his right hand. Text on the picture reads "RIP".

Another photo shows Kanja and other officers giving gifts to a patient, also with the text "RIP". The rest of the images are related to Lagat and Albert Ojwang, a blogger who was arrested in June 2025 after Lagat filed a complaint of defamation against him. Ojwang died in detention, and although the police initially said his wounds were self-inflicted, an autopsy showed Ojwang likely died from assault wounds.

Following public outrage, Lagat stepped aside pending the outcome of the investigations into Ojwang's death. He resumed his duties weeks later, after the investigations failed to directly link him to Ojwang's death, though he was not exonerated.

At least two similar videos with different captions and background music have been posted on TikTok. One has over 961,000 views, and the other has over 368,000 views, each with thousands of likes and comments.

But are the claims that Lagat has died true? We checked.

Video based on misleading photos

If one of Kenya's top police chiefs had died, it would have been widely reported by official sources and credible media. But no such reports exist.

Reverse image searches of the two photos supposedly showing Lagat in hospital reveal they were originally posted in August 2025 by the police service on Facebook. The photos were also posted to the National Police Service's X account.

According to the police's social media posts, the photos show the inspector general visiting officers injured while on duty. The photos have nothing to do with Lagat.

Police social media accounts have also continued to show Lagat performing his duties. A post from 26 October 2025 shows him attending official events around the same time the false videos began circulating.

The claim that Lagat is dead is false.

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Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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