Freed ex-soldiers begin painful journey to rebuild their lives

A Former Military officer Romano Ntong'ondu (3rd left), and Jonathan Murimi (2nd right) and a colleagues (left) among others celebrate with their relatives outside the gates of Shimo La tewa Prison in Mombasa County on Monday,024th August,2015 night . The Former Officers had just been released from the maximum prison following their succesful appeal in which the Mombasa high court judge Martin Muya last Friday ordered the 25 officers released immediately. The victims were last year sentenced to life imprisonment by three Military Courts for alleged desertion of work.PHOTO BY MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD

On Monday, at approximately 8.30pm, they walked out into loving hands of their relatives and friends. Like all trained soldiers, the 25 who included one officer, praised prison authorities for treating them with respect, wore stoic faces and vowed to chart fresh beginnings.

However, after speaking to several as they left prison, it was clear that beyond the cool demeanour lay stories of trauma from prison life and lives turned upside down by the course of the trial.

They insisted that the charges against them had been orchestrated, and had far-reaching effects on their lives, including wrecking marriages and finances.

The 25 had been jailed by three military tribunals that sat at Mtongwe Naval Base between March last year and early this year, sparking a series of court battles.

Initially, they were charged with desertion, which carries a two-year term on conviction, but this was later substituted with the greater charge of desertion during wartime, which attracts a life term. They had allegedly deserted the Kenyan military in 2007 and 2008 to work for US security firms in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.

On August 21, the record number of former naval servicemen were freed by the High Court in Mombasa. However, they spent another weekend in prison and returned to the High Court for orders compelling court officials to serve the prison with release documents.

Although most would not show it openly, they were evidently bitter with people in the military whom we cannot name for legal reasons.

Lieutenant Jeffrey Pepela, 32, was the only officer among those released and one of the few willing to go on record about how his life changed after the sentences were pronounced.

“My wife eloped with another man when she heard that I had been handed a life sentence by the military court,” says Pepela. “I want to start all over again but l am in no hurry to get into another relationship,” says Pepela, who was the officer in charge of the Malindi naval station at the time he left the navy in October 2007.

He admits that most relatives and neighbours now confess they never thought he would be freed.

Given up

“Many people had given up on ever seeing me a free man. Some meet me and ask: Is this you or a ghost?” he says laughing.

Pepela says prison officers treated the ex-servicemen with respect “and not as terrorists as it had been reported”. He recalls that Ramadhan offered a welcome break from the monotonous prison diet as Muslim well-wishers brought the inmates meals.

Another ex-soldier who refused to be named, said his wife left his house as soon as he was arrested. “I gathered that she had a new man in her life and confirmed my worst fears when she turned up in court with a strange man beside her in the public gallery,” he said.

Yet another claims his wife sold his property on learning he had been condemned to life in imprison.

Moses Simiyu, who served as a nurse and who left the navy in September 2007, agrees that other prisoners and the warders treated the ex-soldiers well, but adds that the 18 months in jail had wrecked his investments.

“I was managing several businesses but they all crumbled during my time in jail,” said Simiyu.” I was also heartbroken to hear how my daughter was taunted by other children, telling her that her father was a jailbird.”

However, he is full of praise for his wife, whom he describes as the source of his strength.

And George Mutabari, who has a son and a daughter, describes life in jail as “hard” adding that his heart sunk when the court pronounced that the former soldiers would spend the rest of their lives in jail.

“My transport business was almost on its knees by the time I was released. I’m trying to get three of my lorries that had stalled back on the road,” said Mutabari who quit the service on September 2007.

He thanks his wife for taking care of the family while he was in jail.

“The case was malicious and it is only fair if we are compensated,” Mutabari says, adding that although the military authorities returned his civilian ID card, he was yet to receive the Green Book.

The High Court ordered that all pending documents be released within 14 days.

And Moses Bolo says his one-year-old electronic and tyre import business collapsed during his time behind bars.

“My Nairobi warehouse collapsed while I was away,” says Bolo who had worked for six years overseas after leaving the navy in 2007.