Kenyan prisons are choking with young, petty offenders

As authorities continue to grapple with the best solution to decongesting prisons, crimes are being committed on a daily basis, further putting strain on the penal institutions.

For long, courts have been finding themselves in a dilemma when passing sentences on offenders, especially those charged with petty offences.

Often, judges or magistrates are torn between extending leniency and jailing offenders. In Kenya, custodial sentencing remains the most preferred method of correction and rehabilitation.

And the undesirable outcome is crowding since the available capacity stands at 34,000 inmates. The current population is 58,887 prisoners with many of them facing alcohol and drug abuse-related charges.

The Economic Survey released recently shows some 16,207 prisoners were convicted over liquor offences while 2,062 were jailed for drug-related crimes.

Curiously, persons contributing to the congestion headache are those falling under the age bracket of 26-50 years.  

Economic Surveys of the past consecutive five years show that this age bracket has the highest population followed by persons aged between 21 and 25 years.

As late as last year, there were 32,172 prisoners within the 26-50 age set, according to the Economy Survey 2023. The interesting survey broke down the age bracket of prisoners between 2018 and 2022.

In 2021, there were 31,660 prisoners aged between 26 and 50 years, 2020 (8,134 prisoners), 2019 (35,816 offenders) while 2018 had 34,622 prisoners under the same age bracket.  

They faced offences related to alcohol, drugs, property, employment and registration of persons, against person, injurious to the public, attempts and conspiracies, among others.

Is it inherent or just coincidence that this particular age group is predisposed to lawbreaking? Using theoretical propositions, experts have tried to explain the trend.

At-risk age group

Sociologists and criminologists are of the view that being the most productive stage, persons falling under this age band are constantly under pressure to find a job, start a family, invest and support relatives.

This inevitable pressure, according to the experts drawing from Robert Merton’s strain theory, puts an immense burden on individuals to achieve certain goals, irrespective of the means used.  

Merton, a sociologist, postulated that society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals, even though they lack the means to do so forcing them to adapt.

And adaptation can either be through conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism or rebellion.

Merton theorised that conformity is pursing cultural goals through socially approved means while innovation is using socially unapproved or unconventional means to obtain culturally approved goals.  

On the other hand, ritualists who prefer a more modest and humble life, use socially approved means to achieve less elusive goals. Merton went further to explain that retreatism suits individuals who escape both means and goals.

While rebellion works well with persons who despite rejecting the cultural goals and means, they are able to replace them.

Using innovation mode to illustrate why persons falling between 26 and 50 years are more in prison, experts interviewed were of the conclusion that circumstances push this age set to the limit.

Flawed education system

Ambrose Ngare, who specialises in criminology and security studies, says Kenya’s education system does not provide a confluence between expectations and achievables.

Terming the curriculum dysfunctional, the Egerton University lecturer says children grow up being socialised to believe that without education, their lives will be doomed.

According to the former prisons officer, when the children finally graduate from school and fail to find employment, they sink into despair with some becoming vulnerable to socially unacceptable habits like engaging in crime and prostitution.

“They try to be innovative and in so doing, they commit crimes. Some may as well retreat and end up becoming alcohol and drug addicts,” says Ngare.

The period between 2018 and 2022 witnessed slow economic growth. First, in 2018, the country was recovering from shaky economic growth due to the effects of the 2017 General Election politics.

The World Bank estimated that Kenya’s GDP growth dropped to 4.9 per cent in 2017, a 0.6 percentage point dip from the earlier forecast of 5.5 per cent growth.

The slowdown in economic momentum was attributed to the devastating drought, a decline in private sector access to credit and election-related uncertainty. This situation led to a shrinking of opportunities resulting in an increase of crimes and graft.

“We believe Kenya’s economy can rebound and strengthen through specific measures that safeguard macroeconomic stability, enable the recovery of private sector credit growth, and mitigate the impact of future adverse weather conditions on the agriculture sector,” said Diarietou Gaye, the World Bank Country Director for Kenya.

Although there was an economic rebound in 2018, some 34,622 persons aged between 26 and 50 years were committed to prison. That year, the economy grew from 4.7 per cent in 2017 to 6.3 per cent in 2018. World Bank attributed the growth to improved rains, better business sentiment and easing of political uncertainty supported by improved harvest in agriculture and steady recovery in industrial activity.

Financial instability and unemployment, argues sociologist Francis Kerre, can drive people into prison.

“These problems trigger other unexpected problems such as drug use and abuse, relationship conflicts, prostitution and even murder as well as stress leading to health challenges,” says Dr Kerre.

Although 2019 had a mixed bag of fortunes, economic activity softened due to lower agricultural output and weak private sector investment, fluctuating to 5.6 per cent. Regardless, some 35,816 offenders, being the highest number, were committed to prison.

Economic impact

Covid-19 pandemic had a huge negative impact on the economy in 2020 during which businesses were disrupted, home confinements imposed and movements and social gatherings restricted. Due to the curfews, it is no wonder the year recorded the least number of persons aged between 26-50 years taken to prison. They were 8,134, according to the Economic Survey.

In 2021, the economy remained uncertain due to the pandemic though some of the restrictions were eased. There were some 31,660 convicts aged between 26 and 50 years; a figure that increased to 32,172 the following year when the survey was conducted.

Overall, during the period under review from 2018 to 2022, a total of 142,404 persons under the 26-50 age bracket found themselves in prison.

According to security analyst David Ngondi, the age between 26 and 50 is the holistic prime age in the life of a person. It is during this age that many are likely to find themselves engaging in crime due to either frustrations or lack of a good life like that experienced by fellow agemates.

“Engagement in crime may in several instances be caused by circumstances aligned to after adolescent and midlife crisis, which normally takes toll on men and women,” says Ngondi, a retired police officer who also served as the AMISOM reforms advisor in Somalia

The former AMISOM reforms advisor further links inclination to crime to abuse of drugs, dysfunctional families, unemployment or unstable work environment, political instability, religious radicalisation, economic deprivation and the get-rich culture imbibed in the minds of a majority of Kenyans.