Remandees suffering  for lack of title deeds

The Ministry of Land’s failure to issue adjudicate land and issue title deeds in  the county has been cited as a contributor to congestion in local prisons.

Remand prisoners facing trial for bailable offences Wednesday said they cannot raise bail despite owning huge tracts of unsurveyed land, which could secure their release on bond. 

They also complained that their cases were dragging because of delays by the government chemist and  pathologists to submit their reports to the courts.

They were speaking to a team from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions that visited the Kitui GK Prison to explore ways of  reducing congestion.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Mutuku said there’s a high number of capital remandees who shouldn’t be in prison if their bond terms were reviewed and that this can decongest Kenya’s prisons by more than two thirds.

The DPP says the main aim of the review is to ascertain the main cause of case delays, identify cases that can be expedited through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and proposes feasible and practical strategies for the initiative to be successful.

“We’ve identified gaps which delay disposal of cases forcing prisons to hold suspects for long periods unnecessarily and we’re taking measures expedite cases and review existing bond terms to release suspects on bail” said Mr Mutuku.

Mr Mutuku told journalists that the initiative dubbed Hope for Justice has seen public prosecutors and judicial officers visit all remand facilities in the country, to address the prevailing loopholes, leading to the congestion.

“We’re reviewing all pending files before mid next month in a multidimensional approach where other state departments will be asked to play their role and support the efforts to decongest our prisons” he said.

He added: “Overcrowding in penal or correctional institutions is a natural consequence of a number of social realities and the feedback we’re getting is that issues like slow issuance of title deeds are contributing to this menace”.

According to the deputy Director, the status of each case will be assessed to establish what intervention the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions can make quickly to fast-track the cases.

Mr Mutuku and his team spent the day talking to inmates seeking to establish their offences, how long they may have been held in remand and what alternative bonds they can offer to release them.

“Where bail or bond was ordered by the court, we would want to know why the remandee has not taken that course. In short, we will seek to explore the reasons why the population of remandees could not be scaled down” he said.

Latest statistics released in 2010 indicated that the current inmate population is about 55,800 against an established capacity for 18,600.