• Kamiti Maximum Security Prison on Monday morning experienced unrest from prisoners protesting a search for contraband.
• Kenya Prisons Service spokesman Dickson Mwakazi said the inmates boycotted breakfast after the officers decided to make an impromptu search.
Image: FILE
A prison warden at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison was arrested after he was found smuggling contraband goods at the facility, a senior prison official has confirmed.
The warden (name withheld),51, was found in possession of 675 kgs of bhang, male condoms, 40 mobile phones, 12 litres of Chang'aa and Benzhexol drug (a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease; when abused it brings a drowsy feeling).
"The warden is an old fellow at the facility and he was found sneaking the contraband to inmates," the official who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal said.
Investigations he said are still ongoing.
Kamiti Maximum Security Prison on Monday morning experienced unrest from prisoners protesting a search for contraband.
Kenya Prisons Service spokesman Dickson Mwakazi said the inmates boycotted breakfast after the officers decided to make an impromptu search.
“They refused to take the morning porridge and became rowdy to protest the search for contraband,” Mwakazi said.
Sources revealed that inmates climbed on the rooftops and anti-riot police officers were called in to enforce order and restore normalcy.
The incident was however put under control by officers who were on the morning shift.
All the inmates had to be locked up in their cells to calm the situation down.
Certain sections leading into the facility were also closed and inmates were in a panic mode.
Detectives in August arrested two prison wardens after footage showed them hiding huge amounts of cocaine.
The officers identified as William Chengo and Boniface Kipkorir were captured on CCTV camera hiding the drugs in a toilet at the Manyani Maximum Security Prison in Voi, Taita Taveta County.
The two were also found in possession of ammunition without authority.
Confirming the incident, the prison's officer in charge Mr Bison Madegwa said the officers were handed over to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations for further investigations and prosecution.
In July, another prison warder was arrested at the facility while smuggling cocaine to the inmates.
The officer has since been interdicted as investigations into a cartel that has been supplying contraband items to inmates continues.
Over 30 officers have also been transferred in connection to smuggling contraband items to the prisoners.
Thousands of mobile phones have also been confiscated in the crackdown.
The inmates have been using the phones to con unsuspecting members of the public and even to organised crime while in prison.
DIFFICULT TO CONTROL
Kamiti Maximum Prison deputy officer in charge Gerald Ongume told the Star in July the Kenya Prisons Department is grappling with the challenge of rogue officers.
It is real that some of those cons who dupe innocent citizens to part with their cash are in Kamiti...they are hardcore criminals.Kamiti Maximum Prison deputy officer in charge Gerald Ongume
The official said prison warders collude with prisoners at Kamiti to con unsuspecting citizens through cybercrime.
He was responding to a question by the Star whether it is true some of those who extort Kenyans either through threats or enticement are inmates,
Ongume emphasised that it is difficult to deal with the crime since some of the officers were involved in the scam.
Mobile phones a headache for prison authorities -COAST
Prison authorities have called for the Senate’s help in preventing mobile phones from getting into maximum-security prisons.
They say keeping mobiles out of prisons has become a huge problem.
There's only one metal detector at Shimo la Tewa Maximum Prison and it's broken; they need six good ones.
The phones pose a security challenge in the correctional facilities. They let inmates communicate with each other, fellow criminals outside and help them commit fraud to rob people outside.
In April, Shimo la Tewa officer in charge Jonathan Maingi told the Senate Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights that they need more sophisticated equipment to detect mobile phones.
“The searches done here are largely manual. This is not as effective as it should be,” he told the committee that had toured the facility.
Mwenda said CCTV is needed.
Shimo la Tewa head of security intelligence Kenrodgers Kyalo said prisoners, especially repeat ones, and visitors stash phones in their private parts when entering, making them difficult to detect.
"Men can stash three phones in their backside or front side for women,” he said.