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Six Warders Interdicted Over Inmates Murder
Updated 9 hr(s) 22 min(s) ago
By Standard Team
The officer in charge of Kamiti Prison and five warders have been interdicted over the killing of a death-row inmate.
Mr Joseph Mutevesi and others were sent home as the incident continued to draw widespread condemnation, with the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) dismissing the probe team formed this week as "a waste of time".
Prime Minister Raila Odinga said he was "dismayed" to watch images of warders scalding naked inmates with hot water, supposedly to extract incriminating information from the victims.
"This is just a continuation of the culture of impunity and lawlessness that pushed this country to the brink early this year and whose ghosts we are painfully struggling to exorcise," Raila said in a statement sent to newsrooms last night.
Elsewhere, Narc-Kenya Secretary-General Danson Mungatana has said prison warders brutality against inmates had given the country a bad image.
"We do not want this country to relapse to the dark days of torture and gross human rights abuse, Mr Mungatana said, adding that his party stood for proper treatment of all Kenyans irrespective of their stations in life.
Went on rampage
Inmate Ibrahim Ngacha was killed, while 11 others were seriously injured when warders went on the rampage, savagely beating inmates as they searched for mobile phones and other illegal items smuggled into the prison.
Naked inmates were also scalded with hot water.
Mungatana asked Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, who is also the Minister for Home Affairs, to tell Kenyans the status of the Madoka report that proposed wide-ranging prison reforms.
But speaking in Kisumu, LSK Vice-Chairman James Mwamu called for the speedy implementation of former VP Moody Aworis prison reforms in their entirety.
"The officers behind the (Kamiti) incident were captured on camera. The commission is a waste of money and time," Mr Mwamu said in reference to the team Commissioner of Prisons Isaiah Osugo named to investigate the brutality.
"The warders behind the incident are well-known and should be judged," he said.
Mwamu said the incident was an abuse of human rights taken too far.
"There is no law that allows prisoners to be beaten as was the case in Kamiti," he said, adding that prisoners should record statements and those injured given P3 forms.
Kasarani DCIO Joseph Cheruiyot will lead the team that also includes doctors and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) officials.
Assault
Meanwhile, some warders Kamiti have admitted assaulting inmates, but defended their action as "self-defence".
They said they were searching for mobile phones and other illegal items when some inmates resisted and attacked them with knives and other crude weapons.
"Three of our colleagues were seriously wounded by hardcore criminals who did not want to surrender mobile phones and other contraband goods. We had no other option than to use minimum force," one warder told The Standard.
The video recording sent to newsrooms on Tuesday night, however, showed warders bludgeoning naked and unarmed inmates who ran about howling for help.
Detectives
A team of detectives, human rights officials and doctors investigating the incident interrogated the warders and some of the injured inmates yesterday.
The prison has about 1,200 inmates, some of who have served for more than 20 years.
Warders at the prison talked of difficulties in their efforts to reform prisoners, saying the institution should be expanded to end congestion.
Mr Osugo said no one would be spared if it were established that warders had abused prisoners rights during the operation in which more than 100 mobile phones were recovered.
"The investigators know their mandate and have started their job. They are expected to table a report soonest possible. We will act on it accordingly and if anyone is found guilty, he will face the law," said Osugo. Human rights groups have demanded the sacking of warders captured beating naked prisoners.
Four of the victims suffered serious burns when the warders sprayed hot water on them to force them to open doors.
Injured By Beatings
Other injuries were inflicted through beating. KNCHR official Njonjo Mue claimed that there was evidence of torture and abuse of prisoners rights.
"We are here to ensure justice for prisoners because what we saw on TV and what we have seen here are not pleasing. Action should be taken," he said.
Mwamu warned that if no reforms were instituted in penal institutions, a recurrence of the Kingongo fiasco would be the result.
Recently, a mobile phone racket involving death-row inmates was uncovered in major prisons.
Inmates used smuggled the phones to run an extortion and fraud racket targeting East, Central and Southern Africa.
It is believed that demoralized warders turned a blind eye as inmates made millions of shillings from the scam.
In September 2000, six prisoners on death row at Nyeris Kingongo Prison died during an attempt to escape.
Reporting by Winsley Masese, Cyrus Ombati, Peter Orengo and Joseph Murimi
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