Inmates and prison staff deserve better than this

Death Penalty Inmates listen to speeches during the 15th World Day against Death Penalty at Kamiti Maximum Prison. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Auditor General's report for fiscal year 2021/2022 lays bare the deplorable living conditions in Kenyan prisons. The Auditor General attributes this poor state of affairs to inadequate budgetary allocations to run the correctional services.

A notable thing about Kenyan prisons is overcrowding. Late last year, Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Anne Amadi said there were 58,887 inmates in jails that were initially built to accommodate only 34,000 inmates. These large numbers put a strain on all aspects of prisons' management, which then demands that the facilities be decongested to relieve them of the strain.

In 2000, Amnesty International estimated that 90 inmates in Kenyan jails died each month from harsh sanitary conditions, poor nutrition, torture-related injuries and communicable diseases like cholera and HIV/Aids.

Additionally, it was reported that there was a shortage of uniforms and blankets with some prisoners walking bare feet and in tatters. The quality of food was also rated as being extremely poor and the rations too small for the inmates. Provision of clean water remains one of the biggest challenges in our prisons. Unfortunately, the same conditions still obtain today.

While prison is not a holiday camp as a government official once opined, we should not lose sight of the fact that prisons are correctional institutions, not torture chambers. Lumping together hardened criminals has contributed to an increase in cyber crime. Inmates in prisons are in possession of electronic equipment that they use to defraud unsuspecting Kenyans.

In December 1999, the government launched the Community Service Orders Programme, specifically to decongest prisons. In 2003, the then Vice President Moody Awori introduced prison reforms that sought to give prisoners some dignity by recognising they are human beings who deserve better treatment.

Those reforms should continue and bring on board prisons officers who also live in deplorable conditions. The government should do what is right and improve both the funding and conditions in prisons to make them habitable.