Many prisoners wait for years before appearing in court for trial. A vital moment in their journey through the justice system comes in the sentencing stage, with the verdict often unfavourable to the poor.
Whether innocent or guilty, many end up being convicted without having seen the evidence against them, met a lawyer or understood how to represent themselves in the trial.
Poverty does not allow them the benefit of efficient legal representation. Many prosecution lawyers use this to press judges to convict them on the strength of evidence after they fail to adequately challenge the charges.
This comes amid a damning report by a task force that found Kenya’s criminal justice system favours the rich but condemns the poor.
It is an indictment of a system that is expected to guarantee justice to people from all walks of life, including all forms of vulnerabilities.
The report states more poor people are arrested, charged and sent to prison as compared to the well-to-do.
A study on death-row convicts found that poor and uneducated Kenyans are languishing in prison for either robbery with violence or murder.
The report was filed before the Supreme Court on October 3. The task force was chaired by the Secretary of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Maryann Njau.
I was a stranger in my own trial. I did not even understand the legal terms being used. I was not allowed to defend myself and ended up being convicted to 21 years
According to the task force, Kenya’s criminal justice system is defective, leading to a disproportionate number of poor or vulnerable people being handed the death penalty.
The report indicates that after interrogating the circumstances under which men and women who are on death row were arrested, it emerged that many of them are paying for a sin they never committed.
A one-on-one interview with several inmates further found that there are numerous loopholes in the Kenya Prison’s Service Act that deny the inmates an opportunity to present their pleas.
FROM HUNTER TO HUNTED
On Friday last week, 16 convicts, current and former, graduated with a Bachelor's degree after completing their Bachelor of Law undergraduate course.
This is a partnership project of the African Prisons Project with the University of London.
It all began at the Kamiti Maximum Prison at night in the cells and is now an official school, where inmates can sit exams.
Many have enrolled under the programme, but only a few with the determination and the will to soldier on can see it out.
Dickson Munene, wearing his satin graduation robe and a broad smile, holds aloft his hard-earned law degree from the University of London as the audience cheers.
He expresses thanks, says he will use the degree to help others and celebrates with cake. Then he changes back into his baggy blue-and-white-striped uniform at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Nairobi. And it's back to the dreary routine.
But there's hope for the convicted murderer, who's already served 11 years and will be released in February 2025.
Munene, once the youngest inspector in the Kenya Police Service, is serving 21 years for the murder of James Ng'ang'a, the son of former Agriculture assistant minister Patrick Muiruri and a law lecturer in the UK.
His sentence was eventually reduced from life imprisonment due to his legal skills in making his case before the Court of Appeal.
It was a sensational murder. It happened in 2009, after Munene had been drinking in a Westlands, Nairobi bar. He joined his friend, who'd also been drinking in another bar, and got involved in a brawl over a homophobic slur.
Munene and his friend blocked Ng'ang'a's car with theirs, and the fighting spilled over from the bar to the road. Ng'ang'a was shot three times.
“I have prayed many times for Muiruri’s family that God will grant them a forgiving heart," Munene, 36, told the Star in an exclusive interview at the prison after the graduation ceremony. He was among 17 Kamiti graduates in London's African Prisons Project.
"I pray that God will give them another source of happiness. I have forgiven myself and accepted my fate. One day I pray I will be able to sit down with them so we can amend that which was broken."
He said his biggest regret is that a family lost a son. He, too, lost his family, his wife and daughter. They lost contact after many prison transfers.
“As you can see, I am here graduating in a lifetime's achievement, but it hurts my heart because none of my family is here to witness it," a tearful Munene said.
The irony is painful. "Initially it was very hard. I used to bring people here to the prison. I never imagined it would someday happen to me," he said.
The former cop is also a graduate in economics from the University of Nairobi. He holds an MBA in entrepreneurship from Strathmore, where he is pursuing his PhD.
The law graduate said that at first, his heart was "burning with anger and bitterness" in prison, believing the world and the system were against him. “But this only binds one to misery," Munene said.
Now he says he has accepted the sentence, forgiven himself and is exploring a second chance to make himself a better person, help other inmates and teach young people about the law.
Already, he and other 'jailhouse lawyers' have helped convicts get their sentences reviewed or reduced. Some have been acquitted. They have identified loopholes in the Kenya Prison Service Orders and the National Police Service Act.
FROM VICTIM TO CHAMPION
Morris Kaberia has also been there but luckily gotten out. “The memories of the doors locking behind me as I was escorted by prison warders to my new home are still fresh in my mind. I fell into depression and spent the first days trying to come to terms with what fate has brought me,” he said.
Kaberia, who has now finished a year since he was released from Kamiti, said he was left destitute, lonely, discouraged and feeling unwanted after losing family and friends.
When he arrived at Kamiti, he could not believe his life had changed for the worse. He hoped the double-gated facility would allow its doors to open and give him a chance to amend that which he had wronged, but if wishes were horses... To him, that was the most painful moment.
He was released in 2018 after serving 13 years. Before his conviction, he had served in the Kenyan Police Force for 12 years. Arrested in 2005, he spent long years in remand until 2013, when he stood his trial. He was sentenced to the only available sentence in the law: ‘death by hanging until certified dead’ for the offence of robbery with violence. Luckily, his sentence was commuted to life by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2015.
“In 2010, it was worse for me. I lost my father but worse still, I wasn’t allowed to bury him. My career had taken a hit,” he said.
Kaberia met other inmates at the facility who introduced him to the law programme offered by APP. They formed part of a legal team that prepared court documents, which helped him successfully defend himself.
On his second appeal, 13 years after his arrest, Kaberia was released after the court found that his rights at trial had been violated.
Kaberia is loved and celebrated at the facility after recently leading a successful petition involving five clients. They were seeking a declaration of remission of sentences to all inmates serving determinate sentences irrespective of their offences.
After the Supreme Court decided that the mandatory death penalty is unconstitutional, with Kaberia’s petition, all inmates sentenced to death before that ruling now have an opportunity to go back to their trial courts for re-sentencing.
“I was convicted to death by hanging after I entangled in a land tussle that led to the loss of life. I was put in the execution block, awaiting my day. I fell into depression and thought all was gone,” George Karaba said.
An accountant by profession, Karaba has spent almost 20 years behind bars after his arrest in 2002 and was slapped with a death sentence in 2006.
“It is about resilience and determination. You cannot take such steps without accepting what has befallen you. You need to first come to terms with yourself to be able to move on and transform,” he said.
Karaba said while still in denial, he thought the best option was to peddle drugs within the facility when his sentence was commuted to life sentence, but that even made things worse, until he decided to make the best choice.
He was a patron of the isolation block several times, but that, he said, hardened him even more. He said he regrets that a life was lost in the land tussle because he was burning with anger after what his accusers did to him.
"I admit there are better ways I could have handled the matter. It happened and I have learnt the bitters lessons,” Karaba said.
He said though his family has forgiven him and he had sessions with his accusers, he hopes that someday, they would accept his sorry.
After his pleas were rejected, and the injustices he suffered during trial, Karaba has drafted petitions and submissions and is a point man in providing legal advice to many inmates.
He said the government has focused so much on civil justice while neglecting criminal justice, which is key to prisoners’ trial journey.
HELPING OTHERS FROM EXPERIENCE
Francis Munyao, a pioneer in the APP programme, is already offering his paralegal services to other inmates from behind bars.
He said his journey at Kamiti has been turbulent and difficult by each day, but God’s grace has kept him going.
“Prison cannot substitute the comfort of a home, but through grace, we have survived. I became incredibly depressed, I did not want to eat or wash. I did not interact with anyone,” Munyao recalled.
He said after a period of severe darkness, he found faith in Christ, which played a huge part in pulling him out of despair.
Munyao was a married father with three children. He was arrested in 2005 and stood trial in 2007, when he was convicted and sentenced to 21 years for a sexual offence.
He has been at the facility for 13 years, and adjusting to prison life has been a real nightmare. “I am not proud of what brought me to prison. I don't want even to speak about it. But what gives me hope is how I have spent my time so far,” he said.
Munyao said the only thing that breaks his heart is that his wife and secondborn child died, but he had no opportunity to bury them.
His firstborn son, Munyao said, due to lack of fatherly presence, is an alcoholic and a drug addict, while his 16-year-old daughter is in form one. His father died in April this year, cementing more grief in his heart.
“Though I have achieved so much while in prison, what hurts me most is my family. I cannot correct and guide my boy even if I wanted. When my wife and my son died, I wasn't able to go bury them. These things have given me sleepless nights,” he said.
"Sometimes I get to a point and ask whether the government is being fair to me. I have lost friends and family. My fear is my boy might mess his life and end up in such a place."
Munyao fears that if some day he walks out of Kamiti alive, he will be a total stranger to his only family left behind.
“Just trust in God and keep hoping that one day, I will come back to you,” he said.
Adding, “I suffered a lot of injustice during my trial. I was not issued with any witness statement. I was a stranger in my own trial. I did not even understand the legal terms being used. I was not allowed to defend myself and ended up being convicted to 21 years. The trial was tilted so much to favour prosecution”.
Munyao said now with the legal knowledge he has acquired, he will help to remedy the injustices he suffered.
Isaac Kimaru, sentenced in 2010 for robbery with violence, said he has taken steps back, thought and reflected and seen the need to change.
He said though he deserved the sentence for what he did, he has chosen the best way to help other inmates.
“Life is not easy. You feel like it has come to an end, but when you man up and accept the responsibility, it helps you change. The only resource we have as prisoners is time. We got it all at our disposal. You might be hopeless, but you can change ways, you can decide to do that, which many cannot manage,” he said.
Kimaru was slapped with 14 years and is happy that his term is ending early next year.
“I was wrong for what I did. I am so sorry. I am tired of living one challenge. I will be out there and do more,” he said.
