Mugumo Munene
25 October 2002
Nairobi — An inmate escaped from jail yesterday, only five months to completion of his 11-year term - to present a memorandum to the Commissioner of Prisons.
John Ndirangu Njuguna, 40, made his way to Nation Centre at 11 am after escaping from Embu GK prison at about 6 am and explained why he wanted an audience with Mr Abraham Kamakil.
Disbelief swept through the Prisons headquarters when the inmate was finally escorted by a team of Nation journalists and a senior officer into Mr Kamakil's office at 4.15 pm and as news of his escape spread through the building.
Njuguna, who has been in jail since 1981, ten of the years in the remand prison, first arrived at the Nation Centre five hours after his discreet escape to tell of why he wanted audience with Mr Kamakil.
Sporting a brown spotted shirt, long black trousers and soiled sports shoes, and with no documents on him, Njuguna had earlier in the morning while in Embu, flagged down a Nissan matatu (commuter taxi) headed for Nairobi and paid Sh130 for the fare.
In an exclusive interview, he said that he had been driven to the decision to escaped from lawful custody and seek the commissioner's audience "to explain the terrible plight of the inmates at Embu."
He still carried with him a plastic paper bag containing his prison garb, which he intended to dress in after turning himself in.
"People are going hungry and may die when they well know that the government is sending enough food. They are frustrated because the food ration is being traded by officers and some of fellow inmates for money. At some point, the inmates got so frustrated with the system that they wanted to break away and escape, but it was felt that this would result in undesired deaths and that what we wanted to come to the light would never be known by the outside world. We may all have died," he told the Nation.
The inmates at Embu, where he has been for the last two months, he said, complained of the way the food rations were shared out and that those who had money to spare would get the best and the most at the expense of those who couldn't raise any money.
The disgruntled inmates then put together whatever little coins they could raise and decided that Njuguna was the best placed to steal a moment and take off ... not to freedom, but to the Commissioner of Prisons, when he would then hand himself in. They had made secret arrangements, which Njuguna did not reveal of having someone stash the set of civilian clothes in a bush near the prison.
The inmate, who looked apprehensive when he finally arrived in Nairobi, left the precincts and immediately began finding his way to a place he could find transport to Nairobi. Once in Nairobi, he found his way to Nation centre by asking for direction from security guards.
Njuguna is a trustee prisoner, a status which was retained even after the episode. A trustee prisoner is one who has served sentence for a long time and has shown rehabilitative characters and after scrutiny by a committee of prison warders, is given the role of supervising newer inmates.
At times, according to prisons procedure, trustees are not always escorted when going on chores nearby prison precincts as one of the methods of rehabilitating them and acclimatising them to free life. This way, Njuguna found his short escape easier.
Njuguna had been assigned to supervise herdsmen who were to feed the prison cattle in the morning when he slipped away.
"I decided to come to the Nation because I knew that the truth will be told. I will then go to a human rights organisation and ask them to provide me with a lawyer who would then escort me to the commissioner's office," he added.
The Nation sub-sequently contacted Mr Kamakil who sent officers to fetch the inmate. Njuguna was also allowed by the Prisons boss to contact a lawyer, Mr Mbugua Mureithi, who works with Kituo cha Sheria and People Against Torture and who accompanied him until he was finally re-admitted.
Mr Kamakil commended the prisoner for turning himself in and presenting, in spoke form, the complaints of fellow inmates other than escaping for good.
He then announced that he had appointed Deputy Commissioner of Prisons Cyrus Gacharia Munene to visit the Embu prisons and investigate the issues raised by the inmate.
"I believe that the prisoner meant well. This is a grave matter that requires my personal attention. It will be attended to and if the allegations are found to be true, action taken within the next seven days. I will take stern action," Mr Kamakil told the Nation as Njuguna sat in his office, sipping chilled soda from a bottle served by the Commissioner's orderlies.
Njuguna said that the inmates who had earlier planned to escape, had for four times written to Mr Kamakil and had always suspected that the letters had never reached him.
Mr Kamakil described the incident as unique adding that the inmate would be placed in a different jail and would only serve his remaining term.
He had previously served his term at King'ong'o, Nyahururu, Narok, Naivasha and Kamiti prisons.
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