Inside Kamiti Prison: How kuku choma-chapo is smuggled for Sh5,000

The escape of three terror convicts at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison has, for the umpteenth time, exposed security lapses at ‘heavily guarded’ Kenyan prisons. It is strongly believed the jailbreak masterminded by Musharaf Abdalla, Mohamed Abdi Abikar and Joseph Juma Odhiambo was aided by insiders with tell-tell signs that the trio did not break much sweat to earn their short-lived freedom.

It is not the first time for prisoners to stage such an escape; it has happened in the past and there is no guarantee this was the last.
“There is no way those inmates could have escaped without bribing their way out,” says a source, lifting the lid into the shady deals that take place the prison where warders collecting bribes to let in prohibited items is commonplace.
For example, loaded convicts or those from well-to-do families do not touch prison food. Their special diet is delivered from their homes or hotels.

According to a warder who claims he some years back declined a Sh1 million bribe to allow smuggling of fruits and juice to terror convicts Aboud Rogo, Said Saggar Ahmed, Kubwa Mohammed Seif and Salmin Mohammed Khamis, it is very easy to smuggle food, money and items into the facility.

This is achieved through compromising guards at the main gate, prison blocks and cells.
“All you need is money and the doors will be opened,” says the warder, who has since been transferred from Kamiti.
Rogo, Ahmed, Seif and Khamis were charged in connection with the Kikambala Hotel bombing in 2002. They were acquitted in 2005 after the court faulted the prosecution for failing to establish a case against them.

Rogo, an Islamic radical, was later killed in a drive-by shooting on August 27, 2012 as he took his wife to hospital in Mombasa. The murder came almost a month after he was placed on a UN Security Council sanctions list for providing financial, material, logistical or technical support to Al Shabaab.

The warder claims the tempting bribe came when Rogo and co-accused were cooling their heels at Kamiti Prison. Friends who had visited the facility dangled the bribe so that they could be allowed to meet Rogo and give him fruits and juice.

“I stood my ground and refused to take the money. I thought I was acting in the right way, little did that gesture marked the beginning of my problems; I became a marked man,” says the warder in an interview.
The man claims a senior warder at the Prison summoned him demanding to know why he had declined the cash offer.

“He was furious that I had denied him the opportunity to make good money,” claims the man.
The warder says it is not difficult sneaking foodstuffs, cigarettes, drugs and mobile phones into the highly guarded Prison. For instance, to pass a meal of chapatti/chicken or chapatti/fish through the main gate, one has to part with Sh 5,000, which is shared among the warders.

The price tag for a mobile phone is Sh10,000, which is delivered inside the prison cells with ease. For sim cards and cigarettes, the amount demanded is Sh2,000 and Sh1,000 respectively according to the warder. Even after a search netted several mobile phones and sim cards 13 years ago, convicts continue to communicate with the outside world. Interestingly, some of the warders are the ones who charge the handsets for the convicts.

This became apparent when one of the convicts serving time for killing his father initiated communication with writer. The man who was bitter for being duped into marriage by one of the wardress was “itching” to spill the beans about their “love affair” which was brewed right inside prison precincts. As a future wife, the female officer, on a regular basis, had allegedly been receiving huge sums of man from her convicted “boyfriend”.

The convict had even promised to provide Mpesa transactions to prove his claims.
“I will link you with my relative who will produce Mpesa statements,” said the man. Unfortunately, that was our last conversation as his phone went mute afterwards. The man (name withheld) claimed he was bitter because the woman had left him for another man and that they planned to wed.

“She had lied to me that we shall get married once I complete my sentence, which is fast approaching,” said the man.
The ease at which items get sneaked into Kamiti is blamed on close ties between convicts and warders. This has been enabled following the disbanding of a Special Key Post that was in charge of security inside the Prison.
The elite team of 14 officers maintained surveilance on warders and conducted inspections inside the cells. The aim was to minimise warder/prisoner interactions and detect security gaps. It is not clear what informed the decision to disband the unit credited for foiling some of the smuggling activities within the Prison four years ago.

“Smuggling, and money changing hands between the prisoners and officers is now rampant,” said a warder.
The Prison’s newly appointed commandant Bishon Madegwa has, however, assured that under his watch, all loopholes will be sealed.

“Already, we have started the process of getting rid of illegal phones with impromptu searches netting several illegal communication gadgets,” said Madegwa.

The prisoners and warders are at the same time being encouraged to open up and air their grievances in a move aimed at establishing what ails the institution.
“As we strive to bring order and boost morale, we’re talking to the staff and prisoners to identify challenges and how to address them. I am confident that we shall bring everyone on board,” added Madegwa. In July 2008, about 350 mobile phones and over 100 unused sim cards were recovered from inmates following a search. This was after Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) traced threatening phone calls and text messages sent to members of the public to the facility.

A warder who was believed to be involved in smuggling phones into the Prison was subsequently arrested and sacked. Joseph Mutevesi, then officer in-charge of the Special Key Post indicated that some of the gadgets were sneaked in by members of the public.

“Much as they are in prison, they are still in contact with the cooks who serve them and hospital personnel. Remember some of the inmates still appear in courts while others visit the hospital once in a while,” said Mutevesi.
More shocking are revelations by an insider that every week, inmates raise Sh100,000 which is taken to a senior prison warder at the facility.

Known as “warm water”, the bribe is to make the in-charge relax rules.
“When I was there, this was the practice and I believe it is still going on,” said the source.

According to Prisons Act Cap 90, section 21 (1) no prison officer is supposed to receive any fee, favour or gratuity from or have any business dealing with any prisoner, or with any discharged prisoner, or with any visitor to a prison, or with any friend of any such visitor. Sub-section 2 prohibits correspondence with or have any dealing with any friend or relative of any prisoner, unless expressly authorised so to do by the officer in charge.

“Any prison officer who contravenes any of the provisions of this section shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both such fine and such imprisonment,” adds sub-section five.

It is believed Abdallah, Abdi and Juma were aided by prison authorities to flee from lawful custody. Six officers including the in-charge of the prison, Charles Mutembei, are in custody in connection with the jailbreak.