Concerns raised over inmates risk of contracting diseases at congested Nanyuki prison

Nanyuki Prison boss Wilfred Kati (right) taking Lady Justice Mary Kasango on a tour of the facility on February 10, 2016. Congestion at the prison which holds more than three its capacity puts inmates at a risk of contracting diseases as some have been jailed for refusing to take TB drugs. PHOTO | MUCHIRI GITONGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Kati said the facility has 424 prisoners, a much higher figure than its capacity of 129 inmates.
  • He said local hospitals should set up isolation wards for the TB and mental patients and those with terminal illnesses.
  • Of the inmates in the prison, 199 are men, 49 are women while 174 are in remand waiting for their cases to be determined.
  • Eighteen of the prisoners are serving long-term sentences while two are on death row.

The Nanyuki GK Prison is overcrowded with the number of inmates being more than three times its capacity, the prison’s boss Wilfred Kati has said.

Mr Kati said the facility has 424 prisoners, a much higher figure than its capacity of 129 inmates.

The overcrowding puts the prisoners at the risk of contracting communicable diseases such as tuberculosis.

Of the inmates in the prison, 199 are men, 49 are women while 174 are in remand waiting for their cases to be determined.

Out of the jailed women, five are mothers serving their sentences with their children.

Eighteen of the prisoners are serving long-term sentences while two are on death row.

Six others have mental illnesses.

Three of the prisoners have been jailed for failing to take TB drugs and there are fears that that they might spread the disease to other inmates.

TB PATIENTS

“Our concern is that those imprisoned for failing to take TB drugs might spread the disease to other inmates. It is very disturbing,” Mr Kati told Nanyuki judge, Lady Justice Mary Kasango, when she visited the correctional facility on Wednesday afternoon and witnessed the condition.

He said local hospitals should set up isolation wards for the TB and mental patients and those with terminal illnesses.

Although the prison stands on four acres of land, it cannot shift to another 50-acre plot half-a-kilometre away as there were some hitches from the exchequer in releasing the funds set aside for its expansion.

Justice Kasango, who was accompanied by Principal Magistrate Waititu Gichimu and Senior Resident Magistrate Evanson Bett, pledged to look for ways of decongesting the facility.