In prison, bigwig NYS suspects are just numbers

Below the magnificently refurbished Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi’s Upper Hill are cells where suspects on trial while in remand are held after court sessions to await their transport to prison.

It is in these dingy rooms that the reality that you are entering a new world sets in immediately the doors are shut. Prison warders empty inmates’ pockets of all cash or negotiate with them to keep some. Inmates start their 5km-journey to Nairobi Area Remand Prison — for the men — or Lang’ata Women’s Prison to begin time behind bars.

A colonial relic built in 1911, Nairobi Remand Prison, popularly known as Industrial Area Prison because of its location near the intersection of Enterprise and Lusaka roads, is a sprawling place with five large warehouse-like dorms.

This has been the home of individuals suspected of playing a role in the latest round of theft of billions of shillings from the National Youth Service, since they were charged 18 days ago.

He may have been a person commanding respect from everyone at NYS and receiving salutes from all he met, but now the suspended Director-General Richard Ndubai is but one of nearly 3,000 detainees.

BRUTAL EQUALISER

At the Remand Prison, where he is being held alongside 34 others, the rules say he is just a detainee recognised by a number and he is no bigger than the next man on the prisoners’ list.

“You found us here,” the Sunday Nation learnt, is the mantra used by prison authorities when handling such detainees, a philosophy that makes jail a brutal equaliser.

According to Assistant Police Commissioner Samwel Rutto, the head of Kenya’s largest remand prison, no one had been granted VIP status at the facility — neither Mr Ndubai and his group nor former Local Government Permanent Secretary Sammy Kirui and Nairobi Town Clerk John Gakuo who were jailed in May for their role in the Sh283 million Mavoko cemetery land scandal.

“We don’t have a VIP here. Even if I go through the warrant, there is nothing like VIP. It just exists in your mind. If you tell us, ‘Go for so-and-so’, we’ll go for them. All these things to us are nothing,” said Mr Rutto. “Once you apply the law uniformly, there is nothing like a rich person.”

CABBAGE OR BEANS

Mr Ndubai and the rest have to wake up at 6am for porridge, wait for 11am for lunch and finally take supper between 3.30pm and 4pm before being locked up for the night.

Outside the confines of the prison, Mr Ndubai’s rank of director-general is that of a service commander alongside Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet and the three Kenya Defence Forces chiefs in charge of Kenya Army, Kenya Navy and Kenya Airforce. Ordinarily, he would be enjoying hotel meals that come in courses.

But in remand, the menu is usually ugali or rice with cabbage or beans and sometimes pieces of meat — often cooked with the least regard to palatability.

“He is no director-general here. In our system, he is a remandee with a number. Things like DG are not recognised,” said Mr Rutto in an interview with the Sunday Nation last week.

“If we begin saying we have a DG here, won’t I be his junior? And how would that go? We do that to make sure there is law and order,” he added.

The only thing that can offer reprieve to a prisoner in remand, he said, is if he or she is more than 65 years of age.

“The elderly people, we take care of them. We have to look for a mattress and a blanket for you, just to make sure you are comfortable because we respect age,” said Mr Rutto. Apparently, other detainees share blankets.

SERIOUS CHARGES

With that reality, Mr Ndubai has suddenly found his life transformed from a man surrounded by all manner of “yes sir” people to someone mingling with the vilest of beings, his rank doing little to help.

With his co-accused, they are waiting with bated breath for Tuesday, when the High Court will rule on whether it can overturn a magistrate court’s decision to deny them bail pending their trial.

Meanwhile, all the NYS suspects are coping with the limitation of personal space that they have had to grapple with since May 29 when the majority of them were charged.

Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti had ruled that the charges the suspects are facing are serious and a compelling reason to deny them bail.

Mr Ogoti said although the suspects were presumed innocent, economic sabotage is injurious to the public.

The Nairobi remand prison was built to accommodate 1,288 prisoners. But when the Nation team visited, there were 2,725 inmates in the facility, 179 being individuals who have already been convicted and 2,546 awaiting the determination of their cases.

FAMILY MEMBERS

Mr Gakuo and Mr Kirui — who were jailed for three years each for their role in the controversial purchase of land worth Sh283 million in Mavoko in 2009 — are among the 179 convicts, and they are awaiting a verdict on whether they can be released on bond awaiting their appeal. The Sunday Nation asked Mr Rutto how high-profile individuals reacted to the confinement.

“Naturally, they were in denial when they were first admitted. We had to find means and ways of bringing them to accept the situation,” he said.

“We have to use our professional counsellors to talk to them, of course with the help of the family members. They are privileged to be seen by family members,” he added.

“The kind of environment that prisoners find themselves in, it’s unfriendly, yes, but after some time they come to accept it,” he said.

To make life bearable and to while the time away, prisoners choose from the narrow array of occupations available in prison — teaching, cooking, carpentry and farming.

But teaching is usually the preferred choice for many white collar convicts. At the remand, however, formal teaching only handles the primary school curriculum in what is loftily called the Remand Academy.

PRIVATE WING

According to Dr Ongong’a Achieng, a former Kenya Tourism Board managing director who served time at the facility six years ago, being a teacher grants one the advantage of securing respect among other inmates, besides giving a detainee the chance to exercise their mind by reading extensively.

But some detainees can spend time away from remand for medical reasons. Youth Affairs Principal Secretary Lillian Omollo, one of Mr Ndubai’s co-accused, demonstrated that it is possible.

Her “time off” at the private wing of the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) after falling ill in court, may have given Kenyans a new trick but according to a senior prisons department official who spoke in confidence, it is highly unlikely that any of the high-profile detainees in Industrial Area will head to KNH that easily.

The officer said ordinarily, a prisoner is not taken to KNH before being attended to by doctors at a prison’s hospital.

“We have qualified doctors in prison. Why can’t you give them a chance to attend to you? In case they say they are unable to handle the condition, they will refer,” said the senior official.

PINCH OF SALT

It emerges that prisons officers usually take any allegations of illness with a pinch of salt. They insist on detainees producing past records to prove any ailment.

“It’s possible to refer somebody on Day One, especially after looking at the past medical records,” said Mr Rutto.

The prison, he said, was committed to providing all the necessary amenities, including clean water and proper medication to ensure all detainees are in good health.

The NYS group receives a different kind of treatment than Mr Gakuo and his ilk because the former are yet to be convicted.

The remandees wear their civilian clothes and can be visited any time of the day. For the convicts, visits are limited to once every few weeks. When prisoners at Industrial Area are set to appear in court, the authorities allow them to be properly groomed.

HUMANE SYSTEM

“There are people out there who look at inmates in court and wonder, were they really in prison? We ensure the prisoner has taken a shower and had his clothes ironed. Those who are going to court the next day have already had their clothes ironed. We allow the family members to bring in suits. The system is humane,” said Mr Rutto.

He said the NYS suspects had been locked up in different rooms in one building.

“You spread them in one building: 10 here, 15 here, and another 10 there — along a corridor. So that in case they want to discuss issues to do with the case, it is very easy,” he said,  noting that the suspects had decided to argue out their defence as a team.