High-profile female inmates tell of sad reality

They are regarded as the highest profiled inmates in the second largest correctional facility in the country.

They are among the 15 women who are either serving at Shimo la Tewa Maximum Security Prison in Mombasa, remanded or convicted of terror charges.

The women are accused of travelling to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab, or recruiting for the group, masterminding terrorist attacks in Coast region, forming terror cells, and providing information and finances for terrorist organisations.

Top on the list is widow of slain Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo, Hania Sagar and the wife of a former Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldier Mwanasiti Shee Masha.

At the maximum prison, Ms Sagar, 47, is surrounded by at least 10 policewomen monitoring her every move.

TERROR ATTACK
On this day, she is at the prison’s open ground where she has joined other inmates during the remote parenting day at the facility.

The tight security she has been put under notwithstanding, the mother of five can still afford a smile, even though trying as much as possible not to be photographed.

“You cannot talk to her. She is not allowed to mingle with anyone because of the nature of her case. In fact she has been secluded in her own cell in here,” an officer says.

Ms Sagar is serving a 10-year sentence after she was convicted for failing to disclose information that could have prevented a terror attack at Mombasa’s Central Police Station.

She has since appealed the prison sentence. Her family is at the correctional facility to pay her a visit.

“How are you? I have missed you a lot,” Ms Sagar is heard telling her children and grandchildren as she hugs them.

FAMILY
Speaking to Sunday Nation, her son Hubeib Aboud reveals that life has not been easy since their mother was convicted.

Mr Aboud is short of words during this interview at the correctional facility:

“Like any son would feel, that is what we are feeling for missing our mother. We know that what happened to my mother is just an injustice.”

“I do not want to comment any further about this matter. I just thank the God we have been able to meet her,” he says.

He thanks the government for giving the families of the prisoners an opportunity to spend time with their kin.

“We would just urge the authorities to create more opportunities like this one for us to feel closer to our loved ones,” he says before walking away.

GRENADES
We also meet another terrorism convict, Ms Masha, the wife of a former KDF soldier who is serving a seven-year sentence.

Ms Masha was arrested for illegal possession of hand grenades and handed the sentence last year together with her husband Hassan Jillo Bwanamaka after being in remand for three years.

She has now served one year at the facility. The tribulations of the short, brown and charming woman are hidden behind her occasional smile.

“The first day I stepped here will remain in my memory for the rest of my life,” she says as we start our conversation.

The mother of one terms life in prison as “stagnant”.

“Life has not been easy at all in here. When you wake up, there is nothing you do that you say would say will help you grow in any way,” she says.

SOCIALISING
Ms Masha was during her first days at the facility isolated as she is regarded as a “high profile” inmate, something she says affected her.

“I would most of the time ask myself of what use I am in this world if I cannot even be allowed to mingle with others. It really hurts to see myself in here,” she says.

Now that she has been interacting with other inmates, the feeling has since changed, but this was only to herself.

“You have been asked not to spend much time with high-profiled prisoners. Just finish and let her go,” an officer interrupts the interview.

Ms Masha operated a restaurant in Ganjoni before she was arrested in 2013 in Majengo Mapya, Likoni.

REMAND
We also meet two sisters Amina Said, 18, and Asya Hamisi 23, who were arrested in 2016 and charged before a Kwale court with conspiring with terrorists.

The two denied the charges pending hearing of their case due on May 15 this year. The sisters have been in remand for two years now.

Life, they say, has been difficult. Ms Said, who is arguably the youngest terror suspect to be remanded at the facility, has gone through tough times as she was pregnant at the time of her arrest.

“I have gone through hell in here. I was staring at death during delivery of my baby.

"I did not go through the required medication even after giving birth. Since then things have not been easy,” she says.

She remembers a day when she was beaten mercilessly by the prison wardens.

This is after she was mistaken for another inmate who had caused trouble.

VISITATION
None of her family member has ever visited her as they all accuse her of putting her sister in trouble, leading to her arrest.

Ms Said says in the two years she has been at Shimo la Tewa, relatives have only been visiting her sister.

“You can imagine the pain I am going through. I would see my brother talking to my sister but will never even greet me.

"I have been left to survive on my own in here. No one needs me,” Ms Said says.

Her husband has also limited communication with her. “I can say the only thing that keeps me going is this child here,” she adds.

Her biggest worry is whether her family will ever accept back once she leaves prison.

“If they can come here and not seem to be interested in seeing me, do you think they will take me in if I leave this place.

"If the conditions were good here, I would prefer to remain here,” she says.

CULTURE
Ms Hamisi on her part says she is only worried of the upkeep of her two children that she left with her husband.

“I have never been at peace since whenever I see my children I feel like crying because I know I would have brought them up better as a mother.

"It pains me a lot to see my children lacking that parental love as I languish here for a crime I do not know anything about,” she says.

The inmates’ uniform she says exposes her body, which is against “Islamic teachings”.

“I have problem with everything here but I am just not comfortable with how I am dressing,” she says.

Security sources confided in Sunday Nation that despite a number of cases collapsing, the threat of women joining the terror groups still exists.

RECRUITS
The National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) deputy director Joseph Opondo acknowledged that more women are joining terror groups, adding that

“Yes they [women] are now being targeted. The women are part of the society,” Mr Opondo says.

He said currently, the anti-terrorism agency has developed an approach that will see both male and female youth dealt with to prevent them from joining terrorism.

“Our approach is all-inclusive now and our focus is not on gender right now. We are dealing with the terrorism threat as a whole.”

He added that at the higher learning institutions, officials have been working with the universities’ leadership to prevent radicalisation, which leads the students to joining of the terror groups.

According to a report by the Institute for Security Studies in Africa, once recruited, the women play various roles in the violent extremist group such as recruiters, spies, cooks and cleaners.