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{
    "id": 590015,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/590015/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 309,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, you have put it perfectly correct. I believe the experiences I had were crazy experiences on one incident, I could not believe what happened to me and I used to examine them at the dispensary at Shikusa in Kakamega. I drove into the dispensary and I found as usual a queue and there was no separation between patients from the village and the prisoners. They used to sit on the same queue. So, there is this old woman, obviously poor, who was seated next to a prisoner, a teenager of around 19 years. That boy was coming to be declared fit by myself. At that time, the Kshs10 coin had just come out. They had replaced the green bill of Kshs10 that we used to have. So, this mama came, greeted me and when I received the greetings, I felt something cold, and it was the Kshs10 coin she had given me. Because I usually have a lot of time for people in the lower social class, I asked her what the problem was. She told me not to allow her child to be whipped. I realized she was greasing my hand so that I help her. When I went to examine the boy, even before I examined, the general impression was that the boy was long overdue for whipping. The boy was fit and he would run after any bull anytime and overpower it. I looked at the old woman and told her I was giving her Kshs100 and ensure the child respected the law. There were many other experiences that we had there. I, therefore, want to thank Sen. Adan, and promise that, unless the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee makes it otherwise, I will attend each sitting of this Committee. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is my conviction that in their present form, Kenyan prisons are more of punishment centres than correctional or rehabilitative centres as one would expect. The only thing or experience a prisoner gets after they have been in prison for having drunk changaa or sold busaa, is the punishment. There is no rehabilitation whatsoever of a man who is serving six months because he was found drinking changaa. When he comes back from prison, the only thing he remembers is how he was punished. Sen. Hassan might think that there is a lot of progress in terms of corporal punishment, but the so called corporal punishment where people are whipped by the warders might have gone down. That punishment has been converted to manual labour. If you go to the homes of Provincial Police Officers (PPOs), homes of Prison Officers and even some former District Commissioners (DCs), you find that there are prisoners there giving free service. As they clean the compounds, they feed the zero grazing units of cows belonging to the DC; nobody gives them even a glass of water. They are not paid anything whereas the same officer earns a salary and can hire somebody who can do those manual jobs in their homes. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}