CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Yvonne Sampoda, Kenya, March 1999
THEME = SOCIAL CONDIT.
Describing the Kenyan prisons as «over- crowded» and
«de-humanising»,
Attorney-General Amos Wako is seeking to reverse all this,
by activating the Community Service Order Bill of 1998
The small police post in Nyamira has a police cell measuring not much more than 3 metres by 3 metres. On many occasions, this houses between 30 to 50 inmates when it should house only five. This is common in most Kenyan prisons. Reliable figures indicate that Kenyan prisons with a capacity of 5,500 prisoners, presently house over 33,000 inmates, with many more languishing in police remand cells while awaiting trial. (Remand prisoners are not counted among the above).
Mr.Amos Wako has come up with a solution to this problem. He managed to ensure that parliament approved the Community Service Order Bill, which seeks to provide that those who have been imprisoned for between 2 to 3 years, should have the option of doing community service.
According to the Bill, community service is «unpaid public work within the community». It includes road construction and road maintenance, environmental conservation and enhancement work, projects dealing with water conservation, management, distribution and water supply. Other areas which the community service order will cover, include maintenance work in government-run schools, hospitals, and other public social services, work of any nature in foster-homes and orphanages. It's important to appreciate that the courts cannot hand down community service orders without the consent of the offender and must be done in the presence of the offender.
Professor Anyang'Nyongo is a Social Democrat (SDP) Member of Parliament. He said that the Bill was long over-due. He said Kenyan prisons have been described as «death chambers» where people are sent to die - there is no question of rehabilitation. Kenya's judicial system is such that there are more prison cells for men than for women, leading to congestion in the women's cells.
Mr. Shariff Nassir is Assistant Minister for Home Affairs and National Heritage and the prisons' department comes under his portfolio. He is quoted as saying: «Prisoners are not on holiday while in jail». He said that «prisoners do not go to prison to live comfortable lives there».
The new Bill also seeks to supplement the Extra Mural Penal Employment (EMPE) designed to cater for prisoners sentenced for petty criminal and civil offenses and for not more than six months. The EMPE which has been running for some time, seeks to make prisoners jailed for petty offenses, work near their home areas under the supervision of prison wardens and the provincial administration.
All in all, the prison authorities and probation officers see this new approach as a way of really implementing the Community Service Order Bill and rehabilitating prisoners.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1999 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement