By Kiundu Waweru

The Kamiti Maximum Prison’s yard, cleanly swept and surrounded by manicured gardens, appears serene and peaceful.

Prisoners move about slowly under the watchful eyes of the ever present warders.

One of the prisoners with a cap shielding him from the sun mechanically rolls toward us in a wheelchair.

There is nothing peaceful in his deep-set eyes. Looking bored and disinterested, he asks what our business is.

"We come in peace brother, we need to know how life is for a disabled person serving jail term," we politely state.

It appears we have hit a raw nerve. His hands stiffen and he grasps the handles of the wheelchair so hard that it twitches. His first words are unexpected: "Nikikuja hii jela sikuwa kiwete, (when I came to this jail I was not disabled)."

Joseph Kuria, who is serving a life sentence for robbery with violence, says in 2008, there was a scuffle between the warders and prisoners at Block G that turned ugly.

"During the riots, I fell down and prisoners trampled on me. I fractured my spinal cord," he sadly recalls.

Kuria blames the prison authorities for failing to facilitate an X-Ray ordered by medics to determine if he could be treated or operated.

He says that though he has been to Kenyatta National Hospital countless times, the only medications he gets are painkillers.

The days following the riots saw him languish in the cells in pain.

As Kuria narrates his story, a colleague, Peter Letto, who is also in a wheelchair, is itching to share his experience.

Letto is also serving life sentence for robbery with violence and he, too, says he came to prison healthy.

He was first taken to Naivasha Maximum Security Prison where he met his fate.

Disabling beating

"I was beaten by one of the warders. He had pushed me down brutally and I ended up being disabled. These cases of extreme abuse, especially in the old days, happened a lot and no action was ever taken against the perpetrators," he says.

Letto is a bitter man since he claims he has been requesting the prisons’ authorities since 2005 to take him for X-Rays recommended by doctors, a request that has not been honoured.

"At Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), doctors said I only needed Sh14,000 for the X-Ray. The prison can only pay Sh2,500 for prisoners’ medical needs, beyond which you are on your own," he says.

Letto adds that lack of a comprehensive medical care sees them live a hard and sometimes shameful life, even by prison standards.

"Our fellow prisoners stigmatise us saying we smell," he says before he momentarily stops talking to weigh if we understand their predicament. He continues: "Some of us cannot control our bowels. This sees some excrete on themselves."

Geoffrey Ambani who has served 14 years in prison has a similar story. He too is confined to a wheelchair.

Ambani says he was disabled by two warders in 2002.

Deep pain

"Walinifungia kwa hii room (They locked me inside this room)," he says pointing to a room a few metres away. "Walinichapa na rungu, wakaniacha nimelala chini kwa uchungu (They clobbered me and left me writhing in pain)."

He claims that after the beatings, he was taken back to the cells while in deep pain. He would discharge bloodied urine.

"When the prison authorities realised I was in pain, they took me to KNH. The doctors recommended that I should undergo surgery," he recalls.

The surgery has not been forthcoming and Ambani says he has been fighting for justice since then.

"I know the officers who beat me by name. A while after the beating, they were transferred," Ambani adds as he claims he has documented evidence proving he was physically abused.

The officer in charge of Kamiti Prison, Mr Joshua Maweu, vehemently denies that these inmates were rendered disabled by warders.

"We treat prisoners according to the human rights regulations and I do not recall any prisoner who became paralysed while in prison," he says.

He adds that the prison has an in house doctor and a prison clinic which has X-Ray facilities.

"In case of an emergency that cannot be handled by the prison’s clinic, we rush the sick inmates to Kenyatta National Hospital in an ambulance," he adds.

Maweu says prisoners have a tendency of telling lies to get sympathy.

"Remember that some of them are convicted criminals and they will go to any lengths to get sympathy," he notes.

We ask to have an audience with the prison doctor, but we are told he is not in.

But on our way out, we get lucky and bump into the doctor. He listens attentively to our questions about the inmates’ accusations.

The doctor politely asks us to wait for him as he confers with the prison’s authorities. But he never comes back to us.

Maweu maintains that in any society, there are bound to be people with special needs in prisons, among them the disabled.