Just how rotten is our justice system? This is a must read

When I talked about the conditions in a Kenyan prison, several responses alluded to the thinking that it is only criminals who end up there
I am shocked at how Kenyans are foreigners to the reality. In fact, there are people in prisons, who don’t even know why they are there
There are many innocent people in prisons, than there are guilty ones

For all arrests made, 90% will buy their freedom from police regardless of their offences/culpability. The 10% taken to court cannot be said to be guilty but poor
The guys you see wearing that zebra regalia aren’t criminals as you think, but these are poor people who couldn’t afford either the bribe, the bail or the fine
Our prisons don’t serve a purpose of rehabilitating criminals, but punishing those who fail to bribe that uniformed militia called the police

You are arrested by cops in patrol, as you go to the chemist to buy painkillers, you can’t afford or you decline to pay the 200 bob they ask for, you are locked in the cells, the following morning you are taken to court and for the first time, you learn your crime, as the prosecutor reads your offense, that you were found loitering

You either pay a fine or be remanded for 14 days, when the case will be heard. For this 14 days you have an option of being freed on bail which is the same amount you would be fined

That’s why someone who has never tested alcohol pleads guilty to an offence of being drunk and disorderly, as an easy way to freedom
I pity Kenyans who think prisons are for criminals such as robbers, thieves, murderers, rapists etc. A minor traffic offence can land you in jail, any time

If you rich, you are exempted from this. You can afford the bribe, police bond, bail and even fine!
If you are poor and you haven’t been to jail, it is simple. Your time hasn’t come, and it will very soon. In fact, when you see a Cruiser approaching, it is you they are looking for. Run

When Pio Gama Pinto was killed, in 1965, by the big man, there was a public outcry. The same big man feigned innocence and ordered the police commissioner one Bernard Hinga to arrest and prosecute the killers, immediately
Knowing too well who had killed Pinto, the police commissioner went to the streets of Nairobi and arrested the poorest man his eyes caught. Kisilu Mutua a handcart pusher was charged with the murder and sentenced to hang, but the sentence was later commuted into a life sentence
He stayed in jail for 36 years, until 2001 when he was set free by Moi on power of mercy. He was recently awarded ksh 2.5M for wrongful detention

The man was innocent. In fact he was a total stranger to his co accused, arrested in similar circumstances, the person he is supposed to have planned and executed the crime with

Here in Soy, a friend called Sumbeiywo while drunk, was roughed up by a butcher called Shikuku. He rushed to the home of Shikuku and accosted the former’s wife, whom he accused of originating the lies that made her husband rough him up
Insulted her, he did. But he never touched her. The altercation happened out in an open as everyone watched. Later this man was arrested and charged with attempting to rape Shikuku wife
He stayed in Kitale Prison for seven years. He became sick and nearly died, in prison. He left the prison a very thin man and mentally unstable

I can count very many people who were wrongfully convicted, maybe because the police bungled investigations or because someone big wanted them punished

Owino Konya, my good friend, spent three years in Ngeria farm prison. He was charged with threatening to kill his wife and three children
In reality, everyone knows Konya is a senior bachelor who has never married anyone, even in dreams
If you haven’t been to prison or you haven’t met anyone who has been there, you are living in your own world insulated from the reality of what’s happening around you, maybe by money

By Jerome Ogola