Phil in Paris
12-21-2004, 10:33 PM
Sunday December 19, 2004
By Argwings Odera
It will take much longer than expected to turn Kenyan prisons into civilised reformatories from the hellholes that they are today, our surveys have revealed.
The prison system is still rotten to the core, despite government assurances that much has been done to improve the institution since the past General Election.
Our investigations in the past two weeks, which took us to the two main male and female prisons in Nairobi — Kamiti and Lang’ata — unearthed shocking details of squalor and deprivation, and we can now state authoritatively: The reform programme has a long way to go.
Torture of inmates, poorly cooked and unwholesome food, harassment, sodomy and favouritism based on sexual inclinations are common in prisons.
Infectious diseases spread fast and go untreated, while senior government officials abuse the institution as they clinch corrupt deals with the institution’s cream.
Our probe further found the new stripped uniform in Kamiti that Kenyans see in the Press, computer classes in Naivasha, and the beauty pageant in Lang’ata are all a charade to disguise the appalling conditions in which prisoners live.
While the prison system is supposed to rehabilitate and reintegrate back into society those who break the law, the Kenyan system is far from achieving this conventional goal.
The country’s 92 prisons, constructed by the colonial authorities to confine natives, hold more than 50,000 prisoners, while their initial capacity was 18,000.
Sources say the actual prison population, based on fair estimates, is close to 100,000 though the latest official statistics released in 2002 fix the figure at only 30,000.
The prison reform programme introduced by Vice-President Moody Awori when he was in charge of the Home Affairs docket, proposes to free some 20,000 inmates this month, some of who were released in the Jamhuri Day presidential amnesty.
A further 130,000 have been saved the harsh confinement by being sentenced to community service in a new arrangement that began in December 1999, which was aimed at helping to decongest prisons.
However, while Awori’s programme is well intentioned and a watershed of sorts, its objectives will not be realised soon if what we found out during our investigations is anything to go by.
We saw inmates engage freely in gay sex in both Kamiti and Lang’ata. Some of them stayed awake for most part of the night, scratching away at their skins and frisking their blankets for bugs and vermin.
Some were afraid of covering themselves with the blankets, but they had no choice, as the night was chilly.
We counted more than 10 infants, who were recently born at Lang’ata, yet their mothers had been in jail for more than two years, meaning prisoners have been having access to sex.
Sources at the High Court said prisoners appearing for mentions of their cases often bribed the warders to allow them to have sex with visiting spouses or warders.
At Kamiti, we saw close to 1,000 prisoners without any uniform. Regulations do not permit prisoners to put on civilian clothes unless they are being taken to court or seeing a visitor. Most of them therefore have no choice but to remain naked.
The jail’s reconstructive section meant for those serving five years and below holds more than 1,000 inmates. About 200 of these are properly clothed, as they are usually moved out of jail to do menial labour.
But even then, the 200 sets of uniform supplied to the unit are only given to those who are able to bribe the officers involved, as going to work outside jail is considered to be a privilege.
Insiders told us that appropriate budgetary allocation is usually provided for clothing and other supplies, but the money is never used for the right purposes.
Taking advantage of the highly secretive system of running prisons, corrupt officials in the government and prisons have been diverting budgetary allocations.
Based on these findings, it is easy to conclude that Press images of jovial prisoners in sparkling new uniform that the public has been treated to recently was meant to hoodwink observers into believing that Kenya was finally conforming to international prison standards.
Sources said international donors have been impressed by the reform programme and have backed it financially. "What did you see in those prisoners who were recently taken to hospital with wounds as a result of overcrowding?" posed a source.
The dehydrated prisoners were photographed with ugly wounds on knees and elbows while wearing smart and clean uniform. "How can the body rot so badly while the uniform remains brand new," asked our source while flipping through a newspaper with pictures of the smiling inmates.
The source said the knee and elbow wounds were caused by long hours of squatting or kneeling in sleep because of overcrowding at the reconstructive unit.
Aware that the media would cover the event, prison authorities quickly stripped other prisoners of their clothes to disguise the shame.
Other injuries on the knees, explained our source, was as a result of punishment, where prisoners are made to walk on their knees on concrete for hours. Such a punishment is usually meted out on those considered to be disrespectful of warders.
"They walk until they run out of strength. Those who fall are revived with more severe punishment. We beat them until they get back on their knees and walk again. Sometimes they use their knees and elbows," said our source.
The situation is the same at Lang’ata, where inmates have learnt to walk with their heads stooped, because looking into the eyes of a warder could invite punishment.
"The prison system is very clear," added our source. "Rules must be obeyed. We beat them into obedience."
Most hardened inmates, our investigations found, are petty offenders.
Majority of male petty offenders are poor and jobless people, who cannot afford a lawyer, while a large number of women inmates are those who were involved in catfights or love triangles or were found with illicit drugs.
The condition of those serving more than five years sentences or those waiting to hang is pathetic. This category does not go outside the confines of their jail walls.
"This is the most desperate lot. Once they are brought here, they go through a number of psychological stages. The first one is shock after being sentenced, which is followed by enthusiasm and hope after filing an appeal.
"They then slip into a state of irritability, not even wanting to respond to greetings or small talk because of the lengthy duration of the appeal process. This stage is taken over by complete hopelessness, depression and self-neglect (after the appeal is lost)."
Most prisoners in Kamiti appear bleached for lack of adequate exposure to sunshine. "They prefer to stay indoors, saying light hurts them. If you want to discipline any of them, just drag him out into the sunlight and he will scream like a mad man.
"But we no longer do this to these people. They are already suffering too much by not knowing their fate. It is the worst form of torture that the President is sitting on their files, unable to decide whether to hang them or commute their sentences to life; or just pardon them.
"Even if they are released, they will need extensive mental adjustment to become useful to society," said our source.
Some of those we saw appeared to have very light yellow skin, like someone suffering a serious skin ailment. They were engrossed in their own world.
The only reading material we saw were dog-eared copies of the Bible and the Quran.
The source said many condemned prisoners would prefer to kill themselves to escape the agony of waiting indefinitely.
Copyright © MMIV . The Standard Group
http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_is.php?articleid=8800
By Argwings Odera
It will take much longer than expected to turn Kenyan prisons into civilised reformatories from the hellholes that they are today, our surveys have revealed.
The prison system is still rotten to the core, despite government assurances that much has been done to improve the institution since the past General Election.
Our investigations in the past two weeks, which took us to the two main male and female prisons in Nairobi — Kamiti and Lang’ata — unearthed shocking details of squalor and deprivation, and we can now state authoritatively: The reform programme has a long way to go.
Torture of inmates, poorly cooked and unwholesome food, harassment, sodomy and favouritism based on sexual inclinations are common in prisons.
Infectious diseases spread fast and go untreated, while senior government officials abuse the institution as they clinch corrupt deals with the institution’s cream.
Our probe further found the new stripped uniform in Kamiti that Kenyans see in the Press, computer classes in Naivasha, and the beauty pageant in Lang’ata are all a charade to disguise the appalling conditions in which prisoners live.
While the prison system is supposed to rehabilitate and reintegrate back into society those who break the law, the Kenyan system is far from achieving this conventional goal.
The country’s 92 prisons, constructed by the colonial authorities to confine natives, hold more than 50,000 prisoners, while their initial capacity was 18,000.
Sources say the actual prison population, based on fair estimates, is close to 100,000 though the latest official statistics released in 2002 fix the figure at only 30,000.
The prison reform programme introduced by Vice-President Moody Awori when he was in charge of the Home Affairs docket, proposes to free some 20,000 inmates this month, some of who were released in the Jamhuri Day presidential amnesty.
A further 130,000 have been saved the harsh confinement by being sentenced to community service in a new arrangement that began in December 1999, which was aimed at helping to decongest prisons.
However, while Awori’s programme is well intentioned and a watershed of sorts, its objectives will not be realised soon if what we found out during our investigations is anything to go by.
We saw inmates engage freely in gay sex in both Kamiti and Lang’ata. Some of them stayed awake for most part of the night, scratching away at their skins and frisking their blankets for bugs and vermin.
Some were afraid of covering themselves with the blankets, but they had no choice, as the night was chilly.
We counted more than 10 infants, who were recently born at Lang’ata, yet their mothers had been in jail for more than two years, meaning prisoners have been having access to sex.
Sources at the High Court said prisoners appearing for mentions of their cases often bribed the warders to allow them to have sex with visiting spouses or warders.
At Kamiti, we saw close to 1,000 prisoners without any uniform. Regulations do not permit prisoners to put on civilian clothes unless they are being taken to court or seeing a visitor. Most of them therefore have no choice but to remain naked.
The jail’s reconstructive section meant for those serving five years and below holds more than 1,000 inmates. About 200 of these are properly clothed, as they are usually moved out of jail to do menial labour.
But even then, the 200 sets of uniform supplied to the unit are only given to those who are able to bribe the officers involved, as going to work outside jail is considered to be a privilege.
Insiders told us that appropriate budgetary allocation is usually provided for clothing and other supplies, but the money is never used for the right purposes.
Taking advantage of the highly secretive system of running prisons, corrupt officials in the government and prisons have been diverting budgetary allocations.
Based on these findings, it is easy to conclude that Press images of jovial prisoners in sparkling new uniform that the public has been treated to recently was meant to hoodwink observers into believing that Kenya was finally conforming to international prison standards.
Sources said international donors have been impressed by the reform programme and have backed it financially. "What did you see in those prisoners who were recently taken to hospital with wounds as a result of overcrowding?" posed a source.
The dehydrated prisoners were photographed with ugly wounds on knees and elbows while wearing smart and clean uniform. "How can the body rot so badly while the uniform remains brand new," asked our source while flipping through a newspaper with pictures of the smiling inmates.
The source said the knee and elbow wounds were caused by long hours of squatting or kneeling in sleep because of overcrowding at the reconstructive unit.
Aware that the media would cover the event, prison authorities quickly stripped other prisoners of their clothes to disguise the shame.
Other injuries on the knees, explained our source, was as a result of punishment, where prisoners are made to walk on their knees on concrete for hours. Such a punishment is usually meted out on those considered to be disrespectful of warders.
"They walk until they run out of strength. Those who fall are revived with more severe punishment. We beat them until they get back on their knees and walk again. Sometimes they use their knees and elbows," said our source.
The situation is the same at Lang’ata, where inmates have learnt to walk with their heads stooped, because looking into the eyes of a warder could invite punishment.
"The prison system is very clear," added our source. "Rules must be obeyed. We beat them into obedience."
Most hardened inmates, our investigations found, are petty offenders.
Majority of male petty offenders are poor and jobless people, who cannot afford a lawyer, while a large number of women inmates are those who were involved in catfights or love triangles or were found with illicit drugs.
The condition of those serving more than five years sentences or those waiting to hang is pathetic. This category does not go outside the confines of their jail walls.
"This is the most desperate lot. Once they are brought here, they go through a number of psychological stages. The first one is shock after being sentenced, which is followed by enthusiasm and hope after filing an appeal.
"They then slip into a state of irritability, not even wanting to respond to greetings or small talk because of the lengthy duration of the appeal process. This stage is taken over by complete hopelessness, depression and self-neglect (after the appeal is lost)."
Most prisoners in Kamiti appear bleached for lack of adequate exposure to sunshine. "They prefer to stay indoors, saying light hurts them. If you want to discipline any of them, just drag him out into the sunlight and he will scream like a mad man.
"But we no longer do this to these people. They are already suffering too much by not knowing their fate. It is the worst form of torture that the President is sitting on their files, unable to decide whether to hang them or commute their sentences to life; or just pardon them.
"Even if they are released, they will need extensive mental adjustment to become useful to society," said our source.
Some of those we saw appeared to have very light yellow skin, like someone suffering a serious skin ailment. They were engrossed in their own world.
The only reading material we saw were dog-eared copies of the Bible and the Quran.
The source said many condemned prisoners would prefer to kill themselves to escape the agony of waiting indefinitely.
Copyright © MMIV . The Standard Group
http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_is.php?articleid=8800