The tough road to reforms

The changes at Naivasha Prison have not come on a silver platter.

They were started after it emerged that some warders were colluding with inmates to smuggle in contraband. The most popular were mobile phones, cigarettes and bhang.

The warders, at a fee, would smuggle in the contraband to some inmates who would later peddle them to fellow prisoners.

So unruly and indisciplined were the inmates that in late 2008, three inmates died from taking an illicit brew made inside the prison.

The Officer-in-Charge Patrick Mwenda says the contraband had a big influence on the inmates’ conduct.

Some prisoners made thousand of shillings in the illegal deal as cases of disorderliness rose.

"We learnt that drugs were finding their way into the prison and this was one of the main causes of indiscipline," he recalls.

During the period, the number of mobile phone con games went on the increase with unsuspecting Kenyans losing millions of shillings to inmates.

In the games, mobile phone users would get a message ‘congratulating’ them for winning colossal amounts of money in an ongoing promotion.

They would be directed to contact a certain number for more information and once the ‘winner’ did so, he was asked to pay some facilitation fee and this was the last he would hear from the promoters.

Mwenda and a special squad moved in and confiscated over 100 mobile phones and hundreds of SIM cards from the inmates.

— Anthony Gitonga