This section describes some of the features of the prison during the colonial administration in Kenya. Historically, the British government in 1895 formally took over the territory named it East Africa Protectorate which was transformed to Kenya Colony in 1920.The colonial administration spanned from 1895 to 1963 when Kenya became an independent and sovereign nation.
Prior to 1895, there was no evidence of pre-colonial prisons in Kenya (Clifford, 1974). However, following the establishment of British control in 1895 prisons were introduced to the colony of Kenya. Specifically, in March 1896, a prison was established in Mombasa and tailored along European prison, the prisoners were being employed for building public works (Consul General,1978). Like in most colonised African countries prison and imprisonment as a form of punishment were alien to Kenya.
Detention and imprisonment occupy a central position within the historiographies of colonial and post-colonial Kenya. During the colonial rule, it was a haven for antagonists of colonial rule who wanted an end to colonialism (Anderson, 2005:314). In the post-colonial era, imprisonment became a means of keeping dissent voices against the one-party state in Kenya
100 away from public glare. According to Branch (2005), this category of detainees is referred to as heroes of the ‘second liberation’ from one party rule.
The introduction of prison into Kenya met an initial resistance as imprisonment had no cultural relevance and this led to the introduction of colonial legal codes. The growth in prisons in Kenya during the colonial rule could be said to be phenomenal taken into account that prisons in Kenya grew to 30 by 1911.This growth according to Lonsdale (1990) was influenced by the expansion of colonial influence to peripheral areas.
The structure of prison during the colonial era in Kenya did not show a replica of individualising nature of Western imprisonment. Kenyan prisoners were not greatly segregated from one another inside penal institutions, neither were they distinctly separated from the outside world. According to Branch (2005), prisons were generally located in or near the principal town of each district, close to the administrative headquarters. He went further to submit that prisons in Kenya during the colonial rule generally do not have imposing structures typical of city center prisons in the metropole, instead they could be a ramshackle collection of huts and outhouses lacking basic infrastructures. Prison walls could be porous. The removal and isolation of prisoners from society and subsequently from fellow inmates often did not occur in Kenya (Branch, 2005:242).
One of the focus of this research is to find out if there have been changes to the prison structure of prisons in Kenya and in other African countries. Imprisonment in the colonial era in Kenya is said to be punitive rather than panoptic (Branch.2005:341). He described prisons and detention camps as the location of physical punishment, in the form of extremely unhealthy in the form of exposure to extremely unhealthy conditions, poor diet, and corporal punishment. According to Prisons Department Annual Report, 1931 prison authorities showed a greater enthusiasm for corporal punishment even more than their counterparts elsewhere. The principle of imprisonment at this time was punishment and not rehabilitation. This was attested to by Branch who submitted that imprisonment during the colonial era in Kenya was not defined by confinement but instead by its punitive character. In addition, it was reported that there was what was called dietary punishment as a form of punishment; this entails a form of dietary restrictions. As a result of the punitive nature of imprisonment, a lot of prisoners died. Prisoners were also exposed to hard labour.
Another major feature of the prisons in colonial Kenya was that most offenders served prison terms in detention centers and were convicted of contravening by-laws and other minor
101 offenses classified as an illegal activity with reference only to modified variants of English common and criminal law (Morris, 1972).
In essence, it could be concluded that within this period, Kenyan prisoners were serving sentences in institutions that have no historically derived meaning, having been convicted of activities that they would not themselves consider offenses.
Furthermore, overcrowding featured prominently in prisons in Kenya during the colonial period. The prison population kept on increasing. Branch (2005) citing TNA: PRO CO 544/34, Prison Departments Annual Report stated that between 1911 and 1931, the daily average people incarcerated since then double from 1 546 in 1911 to 3 306 in 63 institutions spread across the Kenya colony. The prison population kept on increasing from 3 000 in 1930 to over 4 700 in 1938.This increase could be attributed to the effects of the Great Depression, mostly due to defaulting on tax payment and the increasing inability of many to pay fines in lieu of imprisonment and detention. The overcrowding nature of prisons in Kenya during the colonial rule resulted in increased violence, unhealthy environment and prisoners being unhealthy. As a result of the unhealthy nature of prisons in Kenya during the colonial rule, a major health scandal arose in 1911 regarding high mortality rates among penal labor force from Nairobi prison constructing Nairobi – Thika railway line. In response to the escalating prison population, the colonial administration in Kenya introduced detention camps first in 1925 and later in 1933 (Kercher, The Kenya Penal System).
With regards to staffing, the prison department during the colonial era in Kenya was highly under staffed. As at 1930, there were only 20 Europeans staff and they were stationed at the headquarters in Nairobi while there were over 400 Africans in the payroll. The prison staffs were overstretched working in the network of prisons and detention camps. The working condition of the prison staff was nothing to write home about. The prison staff was described as ‘dirty, (slovenly) and unkempt’ (Arnold, 1909). The staff were poorly educated, poorly trained, poorly disciplined and poorly paid. Working in the prison department was as a last resort for those who have no jobs. This contributed to the prison wardens having the wrong attitude to the work.
The element of segregation was introduced into the Kenyan Penal system. This provision was made for in the 1930 Prison Ordinance. It provided for male and female to be locked up in different cells; offenders that were on remand were separated from convicted offenders; juvenile (offenders below 16 years old) were segregated from older ones. First-time offenders
102 were segregated from habitual offenders; while civil prisoners were separated from recidivists. Finally, prisoners of different nationalities were separated, Africans, Asians, and European prisoners were separated one from another. However, the policy of segregation did not work due to proper record keeping and demand on space.
A significant characteristic of the Kenyan prison during the colonial rule was the imprisonment of political prisoners. In the early 50s, the growth of the Mau Mau which symbolises a major challenge to the colonial state and methods of political and local control in Central Kenya also affected prison life as they were an increase in Mau Mau prisoners. This category of prisoners challenged the existing negotiated order between prison inmates and warders. There were reported incidents of disorder that included disturbances at Nairobi Naroke prisons. At this period, Kenyan prisons became more violent.