Angwenyi Gichana And Walter Menya
28 April 2008
Nairobi — Efforts to address grievances by prison warders and end their strike, suffered a major setback Sunday when some officers opposed the appointment of former Vice-President Moody Awori to head a committee investigating the matter.
The warders from Kodiaga, Kibos and Kisii prisons accused Mr Awori and former Prisons Commissioner Abraham Kamakil for presiding over the current rot in prisons during their tenure at the helm of prisons in the country.
Mr Awori headed the Home Affairs ministry in the last Parliament and is credited with key reforms in the prisons department. "Mr Awori concentrated in improving the welfare of prisoners at our expense and I don't think he will come up with anything new," said a warder.
Improve terms
Another one added: "Mr Kamakil's tenure was the worst for us and it was marred with corruption allegations and promotions that were based on nepotism."
The warders said they did not have confidence in Mr Awori claiming he could help improve their terms and conditions of service when he was at the helm of all prisons.
"We do not approve the appointment of the person of Mr Awori to look into our plight when he neglected us all the years he was in the Ministry of Home Affairs," said the warders a day after the Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Home Affairs minister announced the development.
The warders also questioned the Awori committee's terms of reference saying their problems were not new.
"Our predicament is obvious to everyone around and we wonder what the committee is going to investigate that they have not seen," said the warders who vowed to continue with the strike.
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