- Law experts in the civil society space have been agitating for scraping of by-laws that touch on petty offences.
- For example, most of the women arraigned on prostitution charge are mostly not convicted because it is hard to prove the offence.
Some people believe living in Nairobi is akin to engaging in an extreme sport and woe unto you if you are poor because your problems will only get worse.
Breaking the city's by-laws —which few people understand— is the surest way to experience the downside of Nairobi.
Offenders have to contend with a rough tackle by the city county askaris or endure days in the stench-ridden holding cells.
On Wednesday, James Wanjiku, not his real name, got arraigned in the city's court 1 for hawking second-hand clothes at the wrong spot and without proper documents.
He had spent the night at the underground cell after he got arrested on Tuesday.
Before being taken to court, Wanjiku said, he endured hell in the hands of the county askaris, popularly known as Kanjos. From the cat and mouse chase game in the crowded streets of downtown Nairobi, manhandling, beatings and eventually being bundled into the rickety pickup trucks manned by the officers.
When the Star met him at the court, he had his merchandise with him wrapped in a piece of gunny bag. He had just been fined Sh7,000 and was calling friends and relatives to come bail him out.
“I’m a trader but now risk jail for not being able to raise the Sh7,000 fine. I’m a father of three who must eat, dress and go to school. I’m living this life because I’m poor,” the 35-year-old said in a low tone, surrounded by mean looking officers ready to take him to his new abode should he not raise the fine.
Wanjiku's ordeal is similar to that of Rosa Wanyama. The 28-year-old mother of an eight-month-old baby came to the capital to work as a domestic worker.
She had left her son with her parents in Bungoma to eke a living, serving a mid-sized family in Umoja area.
She did not have a phone and it was her first day ever being in the city.
On her day one on the job, she stepped out to drop the house garbage to the estate’s collection point but missed it and got out of the estate.
Kanjos were driving around and nabbed her, accusing her of scheming to illegally dump the waste in unauthorised place.
She got bundled into the pick up truck which did rounds as officers preyed on other perceived offenders.
Her helpless crying for mercy did not help. She had not mastered the contacts of her employers and was not even sure of their names.
Her explaining of her situation irked officers who only talked money language.
Wanyama spent the night in the infamous under ground cell. In the court, she was fined Sh5,000 but had no money on her and phone to solicit for help.
Things moved fast as within no time, she found herself in Lang’ata Women's prison.
So shaken and saddened, all Wanyama could do is cry and plead for mercy.
The officers had not mercy. It took the mercy from a well wisher who fundraised to pay the fine and get her freedom back.
Those who have been inside the under ground cell say it is a tough life. Mercy Achieng’ who also run into headwinds with the by-laws, was charged with loitering at night and prostituting.
“It is a dingy place you would not let your worst enemy into,” she says of the cell.
The smell in the cell has sometimes seen some daily court users catch the flu.
In fact, the court’s chief magistrate Roseline Oganyo once told press that when she is sitting, she often order all doors open to save situation.
“The stench is at times too much and that is why I always prefer to have all the doors open. However, this has reduced because the cell is cleaned from time to time and I even request the accused to freshen up in police stations before they are brought here,” she had told a news outlet in a past interview.
Oganyo concedes that the by-laws which the the courts rely on to adjudicate cases are mostly from colonial books and have not aligned with the Constitution.
“There is a need for the county to have some of the laws amended by making sure they are aligned to the current Constitution,” Oganyo says.
Law experts in the civil society space have been agitating for scraping of by-laws that touch on petty offences “because they were weapons of colonialists to criminalise poverty”.
For example, most of the women arraigned on prostitution charge are mostly not convicted because it is hard to prove the offensce.
Penal code requires proving that the offender was caught in the act.
The courts are in the category of magistrates’ courts and are four in number. Oganyo is the overall head.
The reforms needed is not just limited to the laws on which the courts are predicated. It also needs physical refreshing. The seats in the court are old with some being broken.
Some bulbs are broken and not working and some uninsulated electric wires are protruding on the walls posing danger to the user.