A Father’s Love and a Nation’s Fight: Honoring Albert Ojwang’s Father This Father’s Day

On this Father’s Day, we pause to reflect on the courage and sacrifice of Albert Ojwang’s father, a man who embodies the true meaning of fatherhood in Kenya.

Every morning, this devoted father rose early to toil in a quarry, chiseling stone so his son could pursue a university education. In an era when public university slots were few, he enrolled Albert in a parallel program, a costly path only possible through backbreaking labor.

Last Saturday, when police officers came to arrest his son, this father accompanied them to Mawego Police Station, determined to stand by his boy. When they said they were taking Albert to Nairobi, he assured him he would follow. He returned home and rummaged through his old sanduku — the treasured metal trunk where Luo fathers store vital family documents: birth certificates, baptism cards, bride price receipts, and precious land title deeds.

Albert’s father took out the family’s only title deed, land passed down by his ancestors ready to sacrifice it to save his son.

He did not stop there. He called lawyers. He called the press. He wept before the nation, begging for help.

Tragically, Albert was killed in police custody, a brutal reminder of police brutality and a system stacked against the poor. But his father’s fight continues, with lawyers, human rights defenders, and citizens rallying behind him to demand justice.

There is a difference between fathering a child and truly being a father. Between paying child support and actually supporting a child’s dreams.

On this Father’s Day, we honor every father who fights tirelessly for their children, and we stand in solidarity with Mr. Ojwang, a father who will never again hear his son call him ‘Dad’, yet who has taught us what fatherhood really means.

Happy Father’s Day to every hero dad in Kenya. May we never forget Albert Ojwang and the fight for justice his father carries on.