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{
    "id": 149232,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/149232/?format=api",
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    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is time we owned Kenyan programmes, because reforms are for this country, and not for donors. It is us who bear the brunt of poor, or ineffective, reform programmes. I would want to indicate that one of the things that I have seen in this Report is the objective for which they were carrying out the fact- finding mission. One of these is that the Committee was to look into the conditions under which prisoners and warders live. That is one of the reasons as to why they visited Langata Women Prison, for instance. I know that the Committee meant well, especially since it is headed by my good friend, Mr. Kapondi. I would want to encourage the Committee to wear very strong gender lenses in future. Committee Members spend a lot of time speaking to warders. All that the Committee has said in this Report about women prisoners is in about four sentences, and it does not even address itself to the challenges that women prisoners are facing. There are many women with children in prison. I know that the civil society organisation that is mentioned does a lot of work, but that is not sustainable, because that is actually the role of the Government. So, what the civil society organisation is doing is only a stop-gap measure. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, what is the Government doing to address the issue of mothers who are in prison with children who are not prisoners? That is traumatising to children. That is why, as a country, we will be breeding a generation of children who have been made convicts by their circumstances, and not by any of their own actions. One of the aspects of the urgent reforms that we need to look into is the issue of living conditions of warders. Again, we sound like a broken record. I have had occasion to visit some of those places. I was shocked that our warders live in worse conditions than the conditions in which cows and donkeys live in this country. One of the reasons as to why the previous reforms fell flat on their face was because we were looking at the conditions of prisoners at the expense of the warders. Any reform must address the issue of warders and that of prisoners. As we improve the living conditions of prisoners, we must also address ourselves to the living conditions of the warders. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of protection of human rights of prisoners must also be looked into. Even though somebody is a prisoner, he is still human, and his dignity must be preserved. For instance, yesterday, as I contributed to the debate on the issue of the Kenyans who were convicted in China, and who have no legal"
}