Prison paralegals have been praised by the European Union for playing a huge role in decongesting correctional facilities.
Congestion in Kenyan prisons is a huge challenge and the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the problem.
Acting EU ambassador to Kenya Katrin Hagemann on Friday said with the training of more prison paralegals, the challenge could be reduced by half.
“That is an important problem that Kenya is facing,” Hagemann noted.
She spoke at the Shimo La Tewa prison in Mombasa after overseeing the training of at least 60 inmates as paralegals.
Kituo Cha Sheria executive director Annette Mbogoh said 46 inmates have already been released from Shimo la Tewa prison so far this year after the intervention of paralegals.
Inmates have been trained as paralegals through the Programme for Legal Empowerment and Aid Delivery in Kenya (PLEAD).
They are expected to help their fellow inmates through the drafting of court appeals, court submissions and advise on how to examine witnesses among others.
“In that way, we have seen a huge impact in terms of the numbers of prisoners who have been released because of the intervention,” Mbogoh said.
PLEAD initiative provides access to justice and justice support programmes. It is the largest such initiative in sub-Saharan Africa.
In March 2018, the EU, the United Nations and the Government of Kenya launched the five-year programme at a cost of Sh4.3 billion, making it the most extensive justice initiative funded by the EU in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We think it’s important to support Kenya in its justice sector to make people trust the sector more. That everybody, no matter how poor or remotely they live, trust that justice is served for them,” Hageman said.
The paralegals help their fellow inmates in their plea bargains, appeals, petitions and other legal issues.
“There have been quite a few successful cases which help reduce the crowding in prisons,” Hagemann said.
There is however a challenge as most of those trained in each phase end up leaving the prison after successful appeals and plea bargains, meaning new paralegals have to be selected and trained.
“This means they have completed their sentences and that is a success in itself,” the acting EU ambassador to Kenya said.
The EU, UNDP and Kituo Cha Sheria support the paralegals in the prisons in terms of stationery, flash disks, computers, internet, and access to legal documents and information.
The paralegals help their fellow inmates during their free time.
The Covid-19 pandemic has however had a negative effect on the programme with limited interaction with the outside world including court officers.
“For them, it means justice has been slower. Courts have not been meeting. Some of them have been meeting online. That again has its own challenges because that means computers are needed everywhere in order to be able to be part of the legal proceedings,” Hagemann said.
The slowing down of the justice system by the coronavirus pandemic means potentially innocent people have had to stay longer in custody.
United Nations Development Programme team leader in charge of governance Dan Juma said they have been impressed by the impact of the PLEAD initiative.
“We have seen the impact of this program here at Shimo La Tewa and how it has led to decongestion of the prisons to some extent,” Juma said.
Kituo Cha Sheria has so far received Sh20 million in the two years that the programme has been there. It has been actualised in 14 prisons across the country.
Juma said the funds are just to facilitate training, capacity building and other interventions.
“We have re-programmed some of the facilities to ensure that under the Covid-19, we are responsive to the needs of the prisoners that we are working with as paralegals,” he said.
Mbogoh said those who have been released have come together to provide the same support within their communities.
Every year, the prison paralegals have been able to reach an average of 1,000 inmates.
“The real success is seeing that even when they have left prison they are able to use this knowledge to transform their communities,” Mbogoh said.
At Shimo la Tewa, Kituo Cha Sheria trains 30 male and 30 female paralegals.
At the moment, the network of prison paralegals has 390 members.
After training, Kituo continues mentoring them and provides support.
Mbogoh said prisoners' right to vote is a result of the work of a paralegal from Shimo la Tewa prison.
“The Muratetu case was actually filed by one of our prison paralegals in Kamiti,” Mbogoh said.
He said there was a lot of stigma during the formative years of the programme.
Questions were asked why they were training prisoners.
“But we saw that a lot of people who are inside are inside because they did not know how to handle the court process, or they may have been set up or caught up by circumstances,” Mbogoh said.
She said with the skills imparted in the prison paralegals, such people are able to get out of prison.
At Shimo la Tewa, there were 30 paralegals at the beginning of the year, now there are only eight.
"That means the 22 were successful in defending their cases and have been able to join their families,” Mbogoh said.
Edited by P.O
