• Prison has 800 inmates against capacity of 300.
• Prison was started as a district remand centre, later became a correctional facility for high-risk offenders.
Murang’a GK Prison's capacity is stretched to the limit, holding mostly remandees and some high-risk offenders.
The prison has about 800 inmates against a capacity of 300, which means sanitation and other conditions have deteriorated.
Prisons officer Patrick Mwangi said on Monday that most inmates are remandees with ongoing cases.
He said they cannot be transferred to other jails since they have to be produced in local courts.
The officer was speaking at the Murang’a County Service Delivery Committee meeting.
The prison was started as a district remand centre, which later became a correctional facility.
In 2012 it was upgraded to hold high-risk offenders serving long sentences, including life sentences.
The facility serves Murang’a, Kigumo, Kandara and Kangema law courts, as well as convicts and remandees from Murang’a High Court.
Though an accused person is entitled to be freed on bond or bail, many are remanded for various reasons.
A recent Murang’a court users’ meeting revealed that relatives of some suspects were reluctant to bail them out since they considered them a nuisance or a threat.
Others have relatives who want them held in prison so that they can take advantage of the situation and disinherit them. Bail may be affordable but no one will pay it.
Mwangi said the jail has 198 staffers and has various rehabilitation programmes.
The Service Delivery Committee said the government should expand the infrastructure so that inmates are held in humane conditions.
Due to the population increase, crime behind bars has also increased.
(Edited by Eliud Kibii)