By Willis Oketch

Mombasa, Kenya: At least half of the inmates at King’orani Prison in Mombasa are minors, a report by Power of Mercy Advisory Committee (POMAC) says.

The Committee, which reported the findings after touring prisons at the Coast, observed provisions of the Children Act prohibited the incarceration of minors in the same facility with adults.

POMAC officials now want to meet Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to discuss the conduct of some magistrates they accuse of not confirming or assessing the age of suspects before them and imposing custodial sentences on children contrary to the Children’s Act.

On Sunday, POMAC vice chairperson Regina Boisabi said when her team toured King’orani Prison last week, they discovered children, including Standard Eight candidates, constituted half the number of inmates at the facility.

She said most of the children and other short-term inmates were serving sentences of between 3 to 7 days and blamed the anomaly on the defunct local authorities and the Judiciary.

“At King’orani, there were about 250 to 300 inmates and half were minors,” said Boisabi.

POMAC Secretary John Gachivih said most of the children had been taken to court by municipal council guards and registered as adults in contravention of the Children’s Act.

Boisabi said although most inmates were serving short terms, there was a fraction of long-term prisoners including Children on death row.

According to Boisabi, most long-term prisoners fear being released on presidential pardon because of fear of being outcasts in their communities.

Boisabi said most of the inmates who expressed the fears were from Malindi Prison.

She said POMAC would recommend the establishment of regional safe houses so as to protect ex-convicts who are at risk of attacks or murder after pardon.

Presidential pardon

 Findings of the report also revealed that majority of inmates were interested in applying for presidential pardon. Some of them were condemned convicts who have been on the death row for the last 25 years.

“We have assured them their cases would be considered if they had indeed reformed,” said Boisabi referring to inmates who had expressed interest in seeking early release.

Gachivih explained that before recommending early release, POMAC would assess the age, health, circumstances of the offence and period of term one had served.

He said the committee would also work with the communities where the prisoners had come from before recommendations for release are forwarded to the President.