The Dark Legacy

• They were brutalised or killed by Moi’s agents and yet Wako has refused to pay compensation awarded by courts.
• The victims of Kenya’s darkest chapter won’t wait for the Truth and Reconciliation for a hearing
• How a small band of Moi agents wrote Kenya’s darkest chapter in a basement

During the inquest horrifying facts of criminal abuse of human rights going on at Nyayo House were revealed. Dr Peter Antony Carberry, who examined Karanja, told the inquest that when four Special Branch officers brought the deceased to him, he appeared “malnourished, restless and uneasy”

“He was weary looking, extremely sick, full of anxiety and not a forthcoming person. …..he was crumpled in a wheelchair,” the doctor said.

Commenting on the wounds and sores on Karanja’s body during cross-examination by the late Dr. Oki Ooko Ombaka, representing the Karanja family, Dr Carberry said: “The ulcers on his body were bad, open and quite visible to the naked eye. The skin was badly shattered. The whole thing looked like a crater, a deep tissue with pus emanating from it.”

Dr Jason Kaviti, the then chief government pathologist who performed an autopsy on Karanja’s body, told the inquest that the wounds were caused by a blunt object. Kaviti told the inquest that the small and large intestines had ruptured. He concurred with Dr Carberry that the wounds were about two weeks old at the time Karanja died.

In his ruling, the Chief Magistrate, Mr Joseph Mango, declared: “Karanja died like a caged animal as police stood guard over him throughout his dying moments”.

The magistrate concluded that he had no doubt that some offence had been committed but could not say by who because the policeman in charge of the Mwakenya interrogation, Superintendent James Opiyo, refused to give identity of the officers who interrogated Karanja claiming such information would compromise state security.

“On the evidence of the suspects (the police officers who had handled the deceased) I cannot rule that no offence has been committed in so far as the treatment of the deceased was concerned. The investigation carried out by the police was not up to the standard. It was done with some kind of fear.

“My opinion and therefore finding is that the matter needs further investigations as I have no doubts that some offence was committed leading to the death of the deceased. I cannot say by who and so in terms of section 387 (4) of the criminal procedure code direct that this ruling for whatever it is worth be typed and be forwarded to the Attorney General to take any other or further steps that he may deem necessary.”

The Chief Magistrate ordered that the Attorney General needed to carry out further investigation to identify and charge those responsible.

However, no further investigations were carried out and although there has not been evidence to show otherwise police have never come out to deny the findings of the inquest or to explain how Karanja died while in their custody.

“Life in Prison is very brutal. It is an endless torture like a flowing river. It is gradual destruction of humanity. It is a slow death. …Since we were thrown here many prisoners have died. In addition we don’t sleep at night because of the lice, fleas, ticks, bedbugs and vicious mosquitoes. They eat us alive.”

Letter smuggled from prison, 1988

One prominent judge described Kenyan prisons as death chambers. Justice Emmanuel O’Kubasu, while describing the harshness of the prison conditions, said those who entered prisons left alive only by the grace of God.

Even for ordinary criminals, Kenya’s prison conditions are brutal. From the food, sleeping arrangements, medical services, overcrowding to sanitation, the prisons are not designed to rehabilitate but to dehumanise the prisoners.

And although the law prescribes relatively humane ways of treatment of prisoners these are largely ignored through lean budgetary allocations, the level of training of prison warders and a cumbersome process for prisoners to demand these legal rights.