Feature - Prison reforms spark hope for human rights

Kenya's much awaited prison reforms began this week with the release of 29 death row inmates. President Mwai Kibaki, who issued the order, also commuted the sentences of another 195 death row prisoners to life imprisonment. Most of those released had already been in prison for more than 20 years, according to media reports. The move was part of the promise made by the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government - which was elected into office in December 2002 - to carry out penal reforms aimed at turning prisons into rehabilitation, rather than punishment, centres. Moody Awori, who is in charge of the home affairs ministry, this week said prisoners would now be allowed conjugal visits. "Prisoners are human beings who need to be rehabilitated. They are not social rejects bereft of any claim to the human right to love and the desire for acceptance," the 'Daily Nation' quoted Awori as saying. WELCOME MOVE Human rights organisations, which have been agitating for better prison conditions, have welcomed the government move to reform the prisons, where conditons are described as inhuman. Gitau Wanguthi, who runs the Release Political Prisoners (RPP) grassroots pressure group told IRIN the move was a "good sign" that the government was committed to carrying out penal reforms aimed at rehabilitating prisoners. "It seems that the government is committed to the observance of human rights," Wanguthi said. "We have a better atmosphere now," he added. "We don't have to fight for basic rights such as freedom from torture anymore. Now we can join the rest of the world in agitating for human rights at another level." According to Wanguthi, the government's decision to commute the death sentences was a sign that Kenya would soon join other countries in abolishing capital punishment. "We are on the verge of abolishing the death sentence," Wanguthi said. Beatrice Kamau, a senior programme coordinator at the Nairobi-based People Against Torture organisation, also welcomed the government gesture, but said the release of the 29 prisoners was not enough. They also had to be taken through a rehabilitation process which would ensure that they can fit back into society and be gainfully employed. "It is going to be very hard for these people to be accepted back into society," she told IRIN. "Their families may not be ready to receive them. Some of them may still have a criminal element. They need to get into gainful employment." RESTRICTED ACCESS Until last week when the NARC government opened prison doors to reporters and human rights activists, information about prison conditions was scarce. Human rights organisations say the previous Kenya African National Union (KANU) government had denied access to verify claims of poor conditions in prisons. Most information regarding the harsh prison conditions was received from ex-convicts. Even visits by lawyers and families of prisoners was severely restricted, they said. A 2000 report by Amnesty International Canada indicated that there were as many as 50,000 people in Kenyan prisons, which were at the time designed for no more than 15,000. The report indicated that an estimated 90 people were dying each month as a result of harsh sanitary conditions, poor nutrition and healthcare, torture-related injuries and communicable diseases such as cholera and HIV/AIDS. There were also frequent media reports of inadequate clothing and shortages of beds and blankets. "The quality of food in Kenyan prisons is extremely poor and the portions are small. Lengthy water shortages are regularly reported. In these conditions, typhoid, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases spread easily," the Amnesty report noted. In the case of female prisoners, conditions had been worsened by limited cell space, as the prison set aside for women was strained beyond its limits, the report said. TORTURE The magnitude of torture in Kenyan prisons came into sharp focus in September 2000 when the media reported that six death row inmates had been brutally murdered by prison warders at King'ong'o Prison in the central Kenyan district of Nyeri. The prisoners were reportedly killed when they tried to escape from the facility. Eleven prison officers, implicated in the murders, were charged but were acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence. On 2 October 2001, another six remand prisoners held in police custody were found battered to death in their cell, allegedly after a fight between the inmates and hard-core criminals. Last week, a government-run human rights body admitted for the first time that torture had existed in prisons. Onesmus Mutungi, who runs the organisation known as the Standing Committee on Human Rights (SCHR), said prisons were congested mainly because at least 60 percent of inmates were on remand, awaiting sentencing.