RIGHTS: Inmate Deaths Worry Kenyans

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Oct 16 2004 (IPS) - A campaign to revamp Kenya’s dilapidated prisons has ignored the pressing problems of congestion and lack of training of prison warders to respect the rights of inmates, human rights groups say.

‘’Yes, there is a lot of goodwill. We have seen some positive changes at the prisons but more still need to be done. The prisons are congested. Providing new uniforms to inmates is not enough,’’ said James Waititu, media and advocacy officer at Litigation Fund Against Torture (LIFAT). Based in Nairobi, the group provides legal aid to torture victims.

‘’The campaign by the government to improve the lives of prisoners should focus on addressing the fundamentals, such as decongesting prisons and training of prison staff,’’ he said.

Immediately, after the government of Mwai Kibaki won the Dec. 2002 elections, it embarked on measures seeking to give prisons a facelift. Since then, the prison reform agenda, spearheaded by vice-president Moody Awori, has distributed new uniforms, television sets, newspapers and formal education to inmates, something which were denied them in the past.

But a new pressure is mounting on the government to uphold the rights and dignity of prisoners by easing pressure on prison population and taking action against warders who ill-treat inmates. This comes in the wake of an incident in which five inmates died in a jail and another one on the way to hospital, in Meru, eastern Kenya, on Sep. 27.

Initial reports showed that the six were among 12 inmates who were thrown in a 3ft-by-6ft cell, hardly enough to fit one single bed.

Meru health officer, Dr. James Gitonga said the prisoners suffocated and suffered infectious wounds resulting from poor prison conditions. According to him, the six bore similar symptoms including swelling of the feet and knees caused by the long hours of standing due to congestion.

But a postmortem conducted immediately after the incident revealed the prisoners had been beaten to death, evidenced by injuries on the chests, heads, ribs, wrists and other body parts. One of them suffered a fracture on the neck, which according to pathologists, was a result of strangulation.

Five pathologists led by Dr. Moses Njue dismissed claims of suffocation or natural causes as reasons for the deaths.

Fellow prisoners told human rights officials, visiting Meru prison, that the inmates were beaten to death by warders who were forcing them into the tiny cell, already occupied with 12 other prisoners. Upon entering the cell, the newcomers were assaulted by the inmates as they scrambled for breathing space.

According to members of the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR), conducting independent investigations at the Meru prison, the facility, meant to accommodate a maximum of 500 inmates, contained 1,414 inmates.

The investigations showed that the Sep. 27 deaths were not the only ones that occurred at the prison. Forty-seven other inmates have died since the beginning of the year, 14 of them in September alone.

There are concerns that similar deaths could be occurring in other prisons but that they go unreported because prison authorities cover them.

‘’There is a conspiracy by prison warders not to report or make public any deaths in cells. Such information or any other incidents depicting brutality on prisoners have successfully been hidden from human rights groups or other persons conducting projects in penal institutions,’’ Waititu said.

After visiting Nairobi’s Kamiti Maximum Prison, where serious offenders are held, two months ago, Waititu said, ‘’Even after years of lobbying for better treatment of prisoners, I saw half-naked inmates, suffering from skin diseases, sleeping on ragged bedding.’’

Waititu says although the government is willing to open prison doors to outsiders, the institutions still remain closed zones where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are denied access. The refusal to grant NGOs access, he says, makes it hard to compile statistics.

On average, Kenya loses about 10 prisoners every month to death from torture and brutality mostly from warders, or from the poor prison conditions, according to Waititu.

One of the most serious incidents of violence in prison occurred in 2000 when six death row inmates were killed at a maximum-security prison in Nyeri, central Kenya. The prison department said the inmates at the King’ong’o prison attempted to escape but died after falling from the high prison wall. Contradicting prison officials, police said the six had been shot dead to avoid escaping, as provided by the law.

But independent medical examinations conducted after the incident revealed no evidence of gunshot wounds but rather gorged out eyes, crashed skulls with a blunt object and fractured limbs. A result of a government inquiry, established to investigate the deaths, has remained a mystery.

To reduce the abuse, the government says – contrary to what human rights groups allege – it has embarked on a programme to train prison staff. ‘’Right now we have trained senior and junior prison employees on human rights. We are working hand-in-hand with human rights organisations which are helping us in this exercise,’’ Dick Mwakazi, Superintendent of Prisons, at the prison headquarters in Nairobi told IPS.

‘’The government is serious in prosecuting anyone found involved in torture or indiscipline while dealing with inmates. Such a person will face the full force of the law, as has happened to the warders implicated in the Sep. 27 deaths at Meru prison,’’ he added.

Eights warders at the prison have since been suspended to allow investigations by a government team set up recently.

According to Mwakazi, prison authorities are taking steps to improve conditions including congestion, which has been blamed on high crime rate. Such measures, he says, entail modernising and expanding the prisons to be in tandem with the rising prison population.

Mwakazi says Kenya’s 93 prisons were meant to hold 16,000 inmates but due to the growing number of criminals, the facilities are now holding over 52,000 prisoners.

Critics say petty crime can be punished by using other means besides jailing offenders. ‘’The congestion in prisons is caused by the high crime rate. It is not only a prison issue but one involving the judiciary as well. The judiciary has to play its role well because some of the petty criminals could be tackled using alternative means that do not have to involve jail,’’ said Violet Mavisi, vice chairperson of KNCHR.

Adding his voice to the debate on Oct. 13, vice-president Awori said some petty offenders were in jail because they failed to pay fines (between 6.25 and 12.5 dollars) to be set free.

Human rights groups say the 1998 Community Service Orders Act could ease congestion in prison. The Act provides for a fine, community work, or parole for petty offenders charged with offences such as drinking and disorderly behaviour.

The Act, which came into effect in 1999, has been used by the government on 40,000 cases, according to Mwakazi.