The collapse of vision on prison reforms

By PATRICK MATHANGANI

Prisons in Kenya are under the grip of widespread corruption, chronic congestion and rights abuses despite a reform plan started seven years ago, enquiries by CCI have revealed.
And warders are still living miserably in ramshackle houses across the country, as reforms started in 2003 have been painstakingly slow.

With 18,000 members of staff, the prisons authority has only managed to build 492 new housing units in the last two years.
Sources in Kenya’s main prisons say improvements for inmates’ conditions are minimal, and the jails are yet to turn into the envisioned correctional facilities.
This is because of the dehumanising conditions, diseases and poor hygiene not just for inmates but also for warders.

Emergency plan

A decongestion plan through the Community Service Order, which requires petty offenders to be given menial jobs in their community instead of being committed to jail, has also not borne fruit.
Magistrates have largely ignored it, which has resorted in an emergency plan to release 50,000 petty offenders from jail. The fact that these small offenders who include touts and hawkers were put to jail in the first place is testament that the Judiciary has not fully supported the CSO.
Interviews with sources at one of the country’s most protected prisons, Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, accused warders of flouting regulations, allowing contraband and selling basic amenities including water and food.
The lack of water has been blamed for cholera outbreaks recently reported at the facility.
"Water is for those who can afford it," said a source who asked not to be identified for security reasons. "Those who can’t afford take many days before they can even wash their hands."
He said because water is not available in some of the toilet blocks, prisoners have to seek authority to go out and fetch it. This authority is granted by officers, who often demand to be paid.
Kamiti has also designated isolation blocks for inmates with infectious diseases, but they are highly congested and expose warders to disease.
According to Mr Lenson Njogu, a programme officer with Legal Resources Foundation, patients with all types of diseases are put together. For instance, during the recent cholera outbreak, the patients were put in the same isolation blocks with those suffering from TB and those in the last
stages of HIV/Aids.

A warder searches for contrabands at Naivasha Prison [PHOTOS ANTONY GITONGA/ STANDARD]

released, they may be in danger from the very society expected to benefit from community service," said the official.
He said dispensaries were being built in several prisons, and many prisons had dug boreholes to provide water and improve on sanitation and health. He denied reports that people with various contagious diseases were sharing
isolation blocks. "We have a resident doctor in Kamiti and there’s no way he would allow that to happen," said Kilunda.
"Housing is not so far ideal, but the Government is working very hard. Very soon, we’ll be able to complete projects that are in progress," he said.
He added courses on human rights and humane treatment of prisoners had been introduced so as to end abuses inside jails. Senior officers were also undergoing training on public relations. Kilunda also said the Government
was making uniforms for the warders.