Why Bungoma Needs a Female Prison.

Written by Daniel Saenyi 2011-06-03 10:33:00

Bungoma GK Prison. Bungoma GK Prison services continue to face many challenges even after the promulgation of the new constitution. The County prison service has had a hard time handling female prisoners due to the lack of a female prison. As much as the prison service is experiencing an increase in female crime rates, the challenges they face handling these female inmates are diverse, not putting in mind the amount of tax payers’ money they spend. The nearest female prison from Bungoma is in Kakamega, so all female inmates are normally transported to Kakamega once they are caught. With the current economical crisis, this proves to be difficult for the prison service. According to the Bungoma district police OCPD Mr. Amos Cheboi, they transport about 80 inmates to and from Kakamega every week. Kakamega is about 80 kilometers from Bungoma, these means they spend about sh. 2400 on each journey they make. Bungoma OCPD Amos Cheboi. “We need to build female and also juvenile prisons because it is tough for our officers and even the inmates to be transported every now and then to different prisons. When they come here they have to share one cell which sometimes is not spacious enough for everyone and hence raises some health concerns,” Said Mr. Cheboi. Bungoma is the central town that has a Court and many inmates from all over Western province attend their hearings there. If they are female prisoners, they are then transported to Kakamega which makes it difficult for the relatives to reach their family. Mr. Simon Makokha, a prison Welfare officer at Bungoma Prison says that many relatives visit their family at the prison thinking they are held there. They then have to bear the sad news and the high costs having to make another journey to Kakamega if the inmate is a female. “Many relatives come here expecting to see their family or friends because they thought they are here once they are told they were taken to Bungoma. We only harbor female prisons for a few hours as they wait for their cases to be heard and once they are done they have to be transported to Kakamega because we can’t accommodate them,” Said Mr. Makokha. The police who transport these female inmates take on tough risks because they chance the prisoner escaping. Female prisoners in Kenya are not handcuffed and it’s very easy for them to make a run for it if they get a chance. It’s even more hazardous when they are transporting these inmates at night, this normally happens when they have afternoon cases. Bungoma inmates during the Bungoma centenial celebrations doing community service. The police transporting these inmates also need allowances, these obviously reflects back to the tax payer and its also difficult to get the officers willing to the job at the minimal wage they get. The country is currently high on the campaign for gender equality, these has led to an increase in the number of women in the security forces including the prison service. Its tough for female officers to work in men prison as it is in Bungoma prison. They have it difficult trying to control the men inmates who would take every chance they get to harass the officers. “It would be better if we had female prisons because the female officers will have a humble time doing their jobs. In these men’s prisons a female officer cant watch over an inmate on her own because they might over power her, so each female is accompanied by a male officer and she is the one who carries the gun to protect herself incase something goes wrong. I highly recommend that we build a female prison to make it easier for the family and friends and the officers to work comfortably,” Said Mr. Makokha. Bungoma is a fast developing town and not having a female prison only puts it back in the scales of development. Its high time political leaders consider putting up female and juvenile prisons because paying money for weekly transport of prisoners is also pulling back our economy.