Shame of shanty houses warders call their homes

Prison warders continue to live in deplorable conditions even as they await report of the task force formed to propose ways to improve their welfare.

Their only hope is that the project will finally dislodge them from the shame and ridicule of the ramshackle lifestyle they have endured for decades.

Across the country, it is the same old story of a sorry state of officers whose houses are uniformly defined by leaking roofs, worn out floors, congestion and all that lacks dignity.  An audit report tabled in the National Assembly last year revealed that staff in prison stations are forced to put up in mud, iron sheet and timber houses, and multiple families made to squeeze into one-bedroom shanties devoid of basic amenities such as toilets and running water.

At Shimo La Tewa Maximum Prison in Mombasa, retired Chief Justice David Maraga and his delegation braved wafts of all-pervading smell of untreated human waste as he walked past shallow open pit latrines that flank the warders’ compound, when the National Taskforce on Police Reforms toured the place early February.

Here, over 500 officers endure daily life struggles. Together with their families, they shelter under galvanised-iron-sheet walled houses amidst the choking smell of human waste in perhaps one of the most unforgiving insults to human dignity.

In one of the halls located inside the main prison, over 100 officers are housed in small housing units partitioned with plywood. The cubicles are closely squeezed such that four by six beds can hardly fit. The warders are, therefore, forced to sleep on the floor in folded mattresses.

The same serves as the cooking area, with no privacy due to limited space with the modified walls falling apart.  “When it rains, the beddings are soaked, we all live together both young and old with families. There is no privacy as you can see there is no space with no ceiling and falling walls,” an office said.

Most of the houses have leaking roofs partitioned by curtains and the walls are rotting. During the cold season, the officers’ stuff the cracks between the wooden planks with newspapers to keep the chilling winds at bay.

“We feel safe out there doing night patrols, rather than spend our nights in these rooms we call stores for the storage of our personal belongings during the day. We take refuge under trees where we spend our days in case one is off duty,” said yet another officer.

The situation at Shimo la Tewa reflects the sorry state of affairs under which warders survive in most prisons across the country.  In one prison in Narok, the Maraga-led taskforce reportedly discovered that an officer, who had been transferred from Turkana, had been sleeping on the floor without a mattress for a month.

Kwale Women’s Prison is entangled in a mess after mess. Here, officers wallow in poor sanitation facilities characterised by an ageing traditional mud hut. An almost similar state is replicated in Nandi, where accommodation and sanitation facilities are in shambles.

Armed robbery

The story is not any different in Hindi Lamu County, where officers survive in shredded dilapidated accommodation areas, with worn-out mattresses and buildings with rusting iron sheets. It is here in Hindi Prisons where a former prison warder, who is now serving life sentence at Shimo la Tewa for armed robbery, served.

While still serving as an officer, Joseph Komora, 58, says he had his stand-by criminal gang, which he would activate during his off-days and conducts a string of raids targeting posh estates and hotels in Lamu.

One night in 2004 he had led his gang to Kizingo hotel in Kipungani, where they executed their usual cunning mission with impunity, as they terrorised tourists and other revellers at the hotel oblivious that their days were numbered. The former warder’s 40 days had literally run out as police caught up with the gang.

Komora recalls the fierce fire exchange that ensued that night that left him sprawling in a pool of blood virtually unconscious.

“I was shot several times on my hands and legs and became immobile…I could not run away so they came for me and they were shocked to realise I was the mastermind behind the raid,” he recalls.

 They handcuffed me and took me away. It was so shameful of me.

Komora says he was taken to hospital where he was treated and later discharged under tight security but bullet fragments were left in his body. “I was then taken to court where I was found guilty of robbery with violence, and sentenced to life imprisonment.”

In Thika, a male and female officer who sought anonymity revealed that they have been sharing the old houses with their colleagues most of which are partitioned into two before they are left for use by officers and their families.

“I have been in this house together with my wife and two children for a year now. Life has not been easy as we are forced to share a latrine with other officers. Water is a big issue here and that, alongside other challenges, has affected our operations,” an officer who sought anonymity told People Daily.

Officers revealed that they have been squeezing themselves in mud-fertwalled, iron sheet and timber walled shanties that do not have basic amenities such as lavatories. This, they regret, has been compromising their privacy as they are forced to share the grimy rooms with their families.

In Kakamega, a number of warders have to put up with their families in dilapidated houses constructed by Public Works and still pay monthly rent.

 “There are those who stay in mabati shanties and houses akin to halls inside prisons which are in very bad shape. Those who opt for the mabati shanties do not pay rent but have to foot bills such as electricity if there are any,” said a warden who did not wished to be named.

He said some warders opt for houses outside their Kakamega GK, Kakamega Borstal and Shikusa Prisons to escape the squalor conditions. “But they still have to grapple with burdens such as rent, water and power bills which many can hardly afford due to meagre salaries,” said another.

In Nakuru and Naivasha GK Prisons, hundreds of warders have opted to rent houses out of the facility due to the sorry condition of accommodation and sanitation facilities.

Those who spoke condition of anonymity revealed that despite the government constructing a few houses in the facility, they were handed to senior officers, with juniors newly posted settling for old houses.

James Oduor—not his real name—said the situation has affected their morale and their social and professional lives, adding that none of them can wish to invite a visitor over. 

“The reason people keep asking why officers settle for their colleagues in relationships is because they understand the environment they will come into, one cannot bring a girlfriend they are dating over, it is embarrassing,” he said. 

Reporting by Reuben Mwambingu, Denis Lumiti, Mathew Ndung’u and Roy Lumbe