Prison conditions In Kenya
The treatment of prisoners: legislation and practiceThe Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners is the chief international legal instrument which nations are expected to adhere to. Another important document in this context is the Convention Against Torture or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This Convention was ratified by Kenya in February this year. Kenya itself has the Prisons Act. Sadly, both the international and local legislation is nearly 100 percent flouted in Kenya. As Shimoni observes concerning Kenya's domestic law on prisoners:"[It] is largely positive as far as prisoners rights go. However, it has remained a dead letter law with prison officials blatantly ignoring it. A good example is the fact that under the Prison's Act, prisoners on remand are entitled to automatic medical attention from doctors of their own choice. This is, however, not the case on the ground with prison officials asking prisoners on remand to obtain court orders if they wish to receive such medical assistance."
The KHRC surveyInformation on conditions in Kenyan prisons is very difficult to obtain and the KHRC project has no direct access to any of Kenya's prisons. Moreover, members of the prisons department have an almost paranoid fear of releasing information:"It is so bad that a KHRC staffer was referred to the Commissioner of Prisons when he asked what rank a senior officer begins at." The information in the survey had to be conducted in secret and by interviewing past inmates, doctors, lawyers and prison warders. The survey also includes excerpts from the book by Koigi wa Wamwere: Justice on trial: the Koigi case, as well as information supplied by Captain G.G. Ngengi, one of the persons accused together with Koigi. The KHRC Project investigated 12 of Kenya's 78 prisons and also probed conditions in a number of police cells. It surveyed the following conditions: overcrowding, cell conditions, segregation, hygiene and sanitation, clothing, bedding, food, medical care, religion, labour, recreation, discipline and punishment, mechanical constraint torture and cruel or inhuman treatment, access to information and contact with the outside world. It also investigated the conditions of prison warders.
Treatment of prisoners: some of the survey findingsOf all the conditions surveyed with respect to prisoners, it was only the question of religion on which there was little complaint: prisoners are generally allowed to practice the religion of their choice, with the two exceptions of Kapenguria and Eldoret prisons, where believers of African traditional religion were harassed by their warders. "In Kapenguria, the chaplain, a sergeant, ... accused them of believing in Satan and was hostile to them." With respect to the segregation of prisoners (women from men) this rule was also generally adhered to but the same was not the case as far as separating minors from adults is concerned. For example, in Machakos prison where the two categories are kept together, there are many cases of sexual abuse of minors.
OvercrowdingOvercrowding is one of the conditions in Kenyan prisons which is at the root of the generally inhumane treatment meted out to prisoners. Kenya's 78 prisons have a population of some 40,000 inmates, more than three times their capacity. In some instances cells which are meant for one prisoner hold as many as ten. In Eldoret prison some prisoners have to stand in a toilet or bathroom the whole night. The conditions in the Isiolo police station and in the Isiolo Prison are particularly bad:"The cells in Isiolo police station have a capacity for 15-20 suspects but are packed with up to 200 suspects every day. There is no space to sit or lie down and most inmates stand the whole time. In Isiolo Prison there are six dormitories meant to cater for a total of 60 inmates. The population of inmates between the months of February and April [1997) stood at between 240 and 280. This has promoted homosexuality between prisoners."
Hygiene and sanitary conditionsRules on hygiene and sanitary conditions appear to be flouted in most of Kenya's prisons. Proper toilet facilities are generally absent and where they exist, they are insufficient for the number of people who use them. For example, in Eldoret Prison there are two toilets for 100 inmates. Buckets are the rule in many prisons and generally are kept in the cells. Again, Isiolo serves as a bad example of what often happens:"There is a bucket provided in each cell at Isiolo Police Station to serve as a toilet. At times the floor is flooded with urine and faeces. Those held have to take their meals in this foul environment. The cells in Isiolo Prison stink and the floors often overflow with human waste." The situation is not much better in Langata Women's Prison: "The only toilet facilities available [here] are buckets which are placed near the door. They normally overflow with waste because they can go for up to three days without being emptied. The emptying of the buckets is done by prisoners wearing no protection." The absence of soap and other sanitary articles is at the root of many of the deplorable health conditions existing in Kenya's prisons. "Soap is not provided in any of the prisons studied. Hence, the cleanliness of a prisoner will depend on how often his or her relatives bring soap. This leads to the proliferation of vermin, skin and other dirt-related diseases such as typhoid. In Langata Women's Prison pests like bed bugs, flies, fleas and rats are common. Utensils are rarely washed."
ClothingThe lack of clothing for prisoners is another indication of their inhuman treatment. In the prisons investigated by the KHRC Project, prisoners generally lacked adequate and clean clothing. Prisoners are supplied with only one uniform, which is often tattered and torn; they are not given any underwear. Moreover, there is no provision for additional clothing when climatic conditions demand it, such as in Eldoret. The result is exposure to diseases like pneumonia, hypothermia, flu and the common cold. The condition with respect to clothing in some prisons is worse than in others:"The situation in Kingongo Prison is so bad that some prisoners wear shirts that expose their entire back with only the collar and some bindings intact. A researcher observed, 'From a distance one would think that the prisoner had a rope hanging on him.' A former inmate in Kodiaga Prison also noted: 'When I entered the prison, my civilian clothes were taken and stored ... only to find that there were no uniforms or bedding. For six months I stayed in my underwear and slept on the bare cement. Whenever I was being visited or going to hospital I would borrow a colleague's uniform for the occasion or a prison warder would order one of the inmates to give me his uniform".
FoodBoth the quality and the quantity of the food served in prisons leaves much to be desired. In Langata Prison, children incarcerated with their mothers get the same diet as they do: "half-cooked and sugarless porridge made from rotten flour." In some prisons the quantity of food is so inadequate that inmates resort to buying food from those cooking. This is the case, for example, in Eldoret Prison. Here also: "warders reportedly steal meat, beans, ugali (2) and take these to their homes. In his statement to KHRC, Captain G.G. Ngengi notes: "Some prisoners collected fallen ugali from the ground due to hunger. I saw grown men cry due to hunger."
Medial CareThe provision of medical care, or - in most cases - the lack of it, is another evidence of the inhuman treatment of prisoners. Warders are suspicious of prisoners wanting to go to hospital, accusing them of just wishing to ask doctors for special diets. Sometimes they only take a patient to hospital when they are near death. Prisoners with health problems have to provide for their own medicine. Then there is the chaining of sick prisoners to hospital beds. "This is not only cruel and inhuman but has also resulted in the further denial of medical care to some prisoners because doctors are unwilling to attend to a person who is handcuffed or chained as happened to one prisoner who was very sick and had body swellings in Kitui Prison. In this situation he could not even go to the toilet."No special care, apart from segregation, is provided for psychiatric patients; they are not given medical attention. AIDS tests are not provided for in prisons.
LabourPrisoners are meant to be paid for work which they do but again this rule is flouted in many of Kenya's prisons. Or if not, the pay prisoners receives for their work is so low that it amounts to little more than slave labour. For example, in Langata Prison the pay is KSh. 1 a day. In some prisons the pay is as low as 10 or 15 cents a day. (3)Working conditions are another reason why the term "slave labour" is an adequate description of the prisoners' work. In some places they are forced to work for 12 hours, elsewhere they will not be given lunch when they work outside the prison. In several prisons, prisoners are beaten while at work. A former convict reports: "When you are ahead of the rest, you are flogged. When you lag behind, you are flogged." Prisoners an often used as free labour for high government officials. For instance, inmates of Kapenguria Prison "are used to cultivate the farms of at least one Cabinet Minister and senior prisons officials for free."
Torture and cruel or inhuman treatmentThe KHRC Project when investigating 'discipline and punishment' in prisons found a most disturbing fact: "The punishment meted out is so harsh that it [had to be] examined under "Torture and cruel or inhuman treatment.' The punishments deemed fit for prisoners are: locking them in water-logged cells (sometimes even when they are naked) denial of medical attention when sick and physical beatings. A former prisoner at Kodiaga said:
"A prisoner will be stripped naked and be told to stand legs astride, a medical officer will teasingly tap his private parts and declare him fit to receive the canes." As if all these physical cruelties were not enough, prisoners are also deprived of mental stimulation. There are no libraries in prisons, the only books inmates are allowed to read are the Bible and the Koran. Apart from the single exception of Kodiaga (where prisoners can participate in ball games) inmates are not permitted any recreation. In Machakos Prison they are not even allowed to sit outside during free time. In Langata Prison there is a punishment for reading newspapers. Moreover, contact with the outside world is strictly limited. In many places prisoners can be visited only once a month; in Machakos the duration of visits is limited to five minutes. In other prisons, inmates may write to their relatives or friends only once a month and such letters are read by the prison authorities; prisoners are not allowed to receive letters by mail. It is not surprising, given the abhorrent conditions described above that an average of three prisoners die in our prisons every single day, in Kodiaga the death toll is as high as between 10 and twenty a day. The Kenya Human Rights Commission Prisons Project ends their survey on conditions in Kenya's prisons with a commentary. We feel that this commentary needs to have wide circulation and are therefore copying it almost verbatim.
Commentary by KHRCThe clear message this report sends is of a dire need to overhaul the penal and prison system in Kenya. There has been no improvement at all since the launch of A death sentence: prison conditions in Kenya in September 1996 in which KHRC made several recommendations on how prison conditions in the country could be improved. Hence, those recommendations still hold.The lack of the necessary political will to reform Kenya's prisons remains a very crucial concern to KHRC. Apart from the fact that prisons are not adequately provided for in Kenya's national budget, a clear case can be made of the lack of creativity as far as improvement of prison conditions goes. A good example is the fact that prisoners starve while they are a latent human resource that can not only grow their own food, but also contribute to the national economy by producing a surplus for internal consumption and for export. The Government has played its part in all this neglect. Although it has commendably set up a standing committee on community service orders led by Mr. Justice O'Kubasu, there is not much else to show as an effort to improve prison conditions and effect penal reform. In February 1997, the Government ratified the Convention Against Torture or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The provisions of this Convention have neither been incorporated in any domestic law nor has the situation on the ground... improved. The emphasis should not only be in the signing of international human rights conventions. Their elaborate implementation is also central if any progress is to be made in the improvement of human rights in Kenya .... It is now clear that since the penal and prison reform initiative will not be spearheaded by the Government, civil society will have to step in and take the lead in these changes. The death of three prisoners a day due to the appalling prison conditions makes all Kenyans accomplices to those deaths because it is in our name that prisoners are being held in such conditions. The overall vision behind imprisonment is to rehabilitate and not to kill, maim or traumatise prisoners. Ultimately, the ball is in our court, as individuals and as a community: since prisoners are people too, what are we going to do about it ?
NOTES1. Shimoni is planned as a quarterly publication but the first issue (Jan. - June 1997) covers six months. 'Shimoni iii derived from the Kiswahili word shimo which means hole. This aptly represents what prisons in Kenya are. ... Shimoni is also the name of a village on the Kenyan coast where slaves from East Africa were kept while awaiting shipment to slave camps out of the country during the slave trade.
2. Swahili for a stiff maize meal porridge, very common as a staple food in Kenya.
3. There are one hundred cents to a shilling.
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