Why prison life is better than freedom – ex inmates

Hours before a Machakos court was to decide his fate on a defilement charge, Calvin Yogo saw his two children off to school in Kitengela.

He gave one money to a school trip and told them all he loved them.

“I’ll see you later,” Calvin said.

He made that promise on February 27, 2012, the day the jury convicted him.

Yogo repeated the promise four months later after he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment at Kamiti prison, even though it seemed futile.

“I was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison. I was 25 years at the time. It felt like I would age in prison. I wouldn’t recognise my children when I was out,” Yogo says.

After nearly five years behind bars, he finally fulfilled it. Yogo was released after an appeal but since his release, he has struggled to get by.

“I was released in Jan 2017 after a lengthy costly appeal. I miss prison. In as much as I hoped for freedom. I would want to go back there,” he said.

Sleeping on shared, tattered mattresses, the prison halls are squalid and packed with dozens of people, the smell of urine lingers in the humid, stifling air.

Kenyan prisons are tough places to live.

Day after day, year after year, imagine having no space to call your own, no choice over who to be with, what to eat, or where to go.

Threats and suspicions are everywhere. Love or even a gentle human touch can be difficult to find. You are separated from family and friends.

If they are to cope, then prisoners confined to this kind of environment have no option but to change and adapt.

But for some ex-inmates interviewed by the Star prison is like paradise.

Do Kenyan Prisons prepare convicts to rejoin society? 

SCARRED FOR LIFE

For Yogo before his conviction, he was an established disc jockey in Utawala, Nairobi.

He usually earned around Sh50,000 a night.

“I worked From Saturday to Sunday making Sh150,000 a week,” he said.

Yogo in 2017 returned to unfamiliar scenes, his equipment was stolen. He survived on odd jobs to save up and buy new equipment.

In 2018 he raised money and bought new equipment but he couldn’t get a job.

“Employers judged me after serving time in prison. They treated me like a criminal. I miss prison this discrimination is real,” he says.

REJECTED BY FAMILY

Francis Mutuku in 2013 raped his grandmother an act he now regrets and describes hideous.

“I was under the influence of alcohol. I did not fathom my action. My grandmother was my best friend, “Mutuku confessed.

His grandmother,91, later died on arrival at the hospital.

He served his sentence at Kamiti prison and in 2017 he was released.

His life has never been easy, family and friends do not want to see him.

Despite him saying prison life has changed him, nobody wants to be associated with him.

“My family chased me from home. I am homeless, they even threatened to kill me,” he says.

He now leaves with fear that he might end up killed one day.

In prison, he says he is safe and he never feared for his life.

“After a few months in prison, you adapt. I don’t know who I am anymore. What is left of me is an empty shell,” he says.

NO JOBS 

Peter Nzau was released from prison in May 2019 after finishing his sentence.

Nzau was charged with murder charges in 2012, he murdered his brother.

“I served my sentence at Kitengela prisons. Through the rehabilitation programs, my behaviour changed. I am a changed man,” he said.

Nzau while serving his term in prison finished his course in carpentry and pastoral program.

He, however, cannot get a job.

“I was written off, employers cannot trust me. I am suffering out here. I have to sleep hungry which never happened while I was n prison,” he says.

REPEAT OFFENDERS

Kitengela Social Welfare officer Patrick Marindanyi says if ex-inmates are not welcomed by the society they turn back to crimes.

“Reintegration back to the society is very imp0rtant to ex-inmates who have finished their sentence lest they will turn to crimes,” he said.

Marindanyi cites an example of a man who was released from prison only for his family to chase him out to the streets.

The man turned to crimes to get food, money to survive.

“Having repeat offenders is very discouraging. It wipes out the rehabilitation programs taught to them, it leads to overcrowding,” he said.

Prisons have a population of over 57,000 (both convicted and remandees).

There are 105 prison institutions under the Kenya Prison Service for adults across Kenya, of which 87 prisons are for men.

Imprisonment rate 121/100,000 of the population is the 17th highest imprisonment rate in Africa.

Of the total 57,000, 18 per cent are women. Women on remand ranged in age from 16 to 75, with the median age being 29.

Some three per cent of women are under the age of 18.

Women are highly likely (49 per cent) to be held in relation to violent offences, which include assaults, kidnapping, manslaughter, and robbery with violence, as well as infanticide and murder.

The data is based on the latest audit by The National Council on Administration of Justice.

The ages of men on remand ranged from 13 to 74. The median age is 28.

Some five per cent of men held on remand were under the age of 18, amounting to 427 children.

The largest category among men on remand is also violent offences, at 32 per cent. Amongst violent offences, murder comprises 49 per cent.

Property offences comprise 27 per cent and sexual offences 16 per cent, while offences against the state (excluding drugs) comprise 6 per cent.