Unlike the dozens of political activists abducted by suspected security agents over the last year, the 31-year-old schoolteacher was taken to a police station and officers shared their phone numbers with his family.

"When they came, they were so soft. They were not violent," said Nevnine Onyango, who was present when the officers arrived, accusing her husband of insulting their "boss". "So that is what gave me even more confidence."

The next morning, a family member called with the news that Ojwang, the father of their three-year-old son, was dead.

In the week since, the blogger's death has become a lightning rod in a nation just one year removed from mass youth-led protests that were fuelled, in part, by disgust at pervasive police violence.

Hundreds took to the streets of the capital Nairobi this week, with vehicles set ablaze and the police responding with teargas.

Demonstrators cited Ojwang's death as evidence that nothing had changed one year after more than 60 people were killed during protests initially sparked by proposed tax hikes.

--Reuters--