Shoe gang’s terror in prison

JOHN GEREZANI

I ordinarily should have marked my transition to this new address with pomp, but common sense dictates that l keep it real with you.

Just as Mogadishu is ranked as the most dangerous city in the continent, so is Hell’s den (Naivasha Prison) fast gaining notoriety as the most dangerous neti in the region. Their mission statement of keeping offenders in safe and humane conditions pending reintegration into the society is ringing hollow.

Recent events in that vast institution has brought into sharp focus the quality of management vis~a~vis ignorance of the provisions of the new Constitution.

Bad reception

Dan and John (not their real names) had been transferred from the Nakuru neti to Hells den, but an altercation at the reception office led to their being segregated at the punishment block where they proceeded to commit one of the most gruesome murders in the history of the department.

The duo had been told upon entry that wearing shoes was marufuku (forget Dr Chweya’s voluble PR about supplying netizens with shoes), but they insisted that it was their constitutional right to wear shoes.

The subsequent stand-off led to some thwacking and forceful removal of the shoes before they were shepherded to the cold neti punishment cells, but not before they vowed to the rigid and bigoted smarters that they would do anything to ensure that they got transferred to a neti where wearing of shoes was no big deal.

On their second day in the cells, they were joined by a netizen working in the kitchen who had fallen foul of the stringent neti rules and had been sent to the neti slammer on penal diet.

This provided the "shoe gang" the perfect opportunity to make good their threat and sure enough they duly dispatched the poor cook to the pearly gates and earned them a transfer to another neti.

Even as hard questions abound over why the duo were transferred to another neti instead of being charged with murder, l must encourage you to ignore the story of the chap dying while being sodomised because the reality is as I’ve stated.

That nothing was done in this and a previous case in which six netizens strangled their colleague to death is what has emboldened many to turn to murder as a stress reliever.

That is impunity of the highest order and Izzo has no option but to send the Hells den sonko on forced leave pending investigations into the grave matters before the deceased inmates’ relaz take someone to court for dereliction of duty and wrongful dismissal.

warning shot

The recent case in which a former netizen was awarded Sh2 million for wrongful confinement should alert the authorities to potential liabilities that they subject the department to due to acts of omission and commission. They should beware because, thanks to the new Constitution, one can ask our old boy the CJ to provide us with a tough lawyer to handle our brief at state’s expense.

It’s no longer business as usual my good people. Sadly even before the dust settled on these murderous shenanigans, we yet again startled the country with breaking news that yet another netizen had brrn slain and the body decapitated with the severed arm finding itself in a bucket which was ominously deposited at the duty office for effect. The official line is that the former trusty’s crime was being a rat (informer).

I am surprised that lzzo has not asked himself what is turning otherwise sane people into such callous beasts and what such deaths portend for his reform agenda.

Due diligence demands that he acts decisively and immediately before he is sucked into the vortex.

On the same breath, I’d like to ask the Hells den sonko to read Chapter Six of the Constitution and do the honourable thing by resigning to give way for an impartial probe.

The other day my editor chided me for wrongly predicting the outcome of the Casey Anthony murder trial. My answer is that even OJ Simpson was acquitted in the same manner and yuko wapi sasa?

Back where he belongs....neti.