By RAWLINGS OTIENO
KENYA: Finally, after weeks of hunger strike, inmates at Kamiti Maximum Prison who complained of being subjected to delayed justice got a rare chance to air their perceived injustices to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga.
The prisoners were protesting delays in determination of their appeals and the CJ on Thursday promised to do his best to ensure pending cases are finalised within the shortest but reasonable time possible.
Dr Mutunga, who was accompanied by Chief Registrar of Judiciary Gladys Shollei among others, visited Kamiti, not as a guest of the State, but a friend, giving the prisoners an opportunity to pile their demands.
In their usual black and white stripped uniform, the convicts braced the scotching sun to air their grievances to Justice Mutunga, the man at the helm of the institution that sent them to the gallows.
The challenges
The CJ looked distraught as the inmates narrated their ordeal in appealing their cases at the Court of Appeal and High Court, with calls that the cases heard by unsuitable judges and magistrates vetted by the Sharad Rao-led board be reviewed.
The prison has more than 400 inmates on death row, most of whom claimed they are still innocent but behind bars because they lacked ‘something’ to bribe judges and magistrates with.
Apart from ‘delayed justice’ inmates laid before Mutunga other challenges including congestion and an urgent need for reforms.
According to authorities, Kamiti is among the most overcrowded prisons and whereas Kenyan prisons are designed to accommodate only 23,000 prisoners, they are over 50,000.
Touched by their experiences, Mutunga asked them to be patient, assuring them he was spearheading reforms at the registry and soon ‘cartels’ would be no more to harass them.
Among those presenting the grievances were a blind inmate who has been in the prison for 11 years. He said when he came to the prison, he had no vision problems.
Light moments
Inmates who spoke on behalf of their colleagues urged the CJ to hasten the cases of prisoners with special needs such as the blind, the old and the handicapped so that they could be released.
“This man was not blind when he came here. He became blind after he fell sick yet his condition could have been cured. Look at him, he cannot see. God has punished him enough, why still continue putting such a person here?” an inmate begged as he appealed to the CJ to consider his case.
The prisoners said some of them find themselves there not because of their crimes but due to illiteracy in arguing their cases.
“Some of us are guilty others are not. We know that there are some of us who are here because we did not have anything to give to the judges or magistrates. We are the end products of ills and incompetence of the past Judiciary,” a prisoner told the Chief Justice.
But the sad mood of hearing ‘injustices’ prisoners claimed were meted on them, came moments after Mutunga, Shollei and Court of Appeal President Kihara Kariuki were treated to a warm welcome and entertainment that left everyone in stitches.
There was a light mood when inmates insisted on referring to the CJ as ‘daddy’, a tag he initially resisted until he gave up.
