HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 590051,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/590051/?format=api",
"text_counter": 345,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Anyang'-Nyong'o",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 193,
"legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
"slug": "peter-nyongo"
},
"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand to support this Motion. I also congratulate my dear friend, Sen. Adan, for bringing it to the Senate and choosing a very competent list of hon. Members to be in the Select Committee. I want to speak specifically about police cells. I will only speak of my experience in one prison, because I was once imprisoned at Luzira Maximum Security Prison in Uganda in 1969. I have been put in police cells in the following police stations in Kenya: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Police Station near the Integrity Centre, Kabete Police Station, Kileleshwa Police Station, the Central Police Station, the Police Station near the “Machakos Airport” on the way to Shauri Moyo, which I cannot quite remember its name, the Muthaiga Police Station, the Kisumu Police Station, the Traffic Headquarters Police Station near Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and finally, Nyayo House where I spent about 30 days. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was in prison at the Luzira Maximum Security Prison for a couple of days. During those days, prison conditions in Kenya and Uganda were more or less the same. I remember very well the lack of human rights and the indignity of being in a prison cell. You had a bowl for your toilet and you were responsible for looking after it. You had only a few hours in the morning to see daylight when you were cutting grass. You would spend the rest of your days in the prison cell. I was taken to prison because being a student leader – the President of the students’ guild at Makerere University – we had organised a demonstration against the British Government to protest against their sale of arms to the Apartheid Regime in South Africa. The Uganda Government did not take that kindly. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, of all the police stations where I was held for a couple of days waiting to be taken to court, I remember, in particular, the police station near the Machakos Bus Stop where I found 40 people crowded in a place not bigger than, I would say, 10 by 10 feet. Since I was a Member of Parliament (MP), the person in charge was kind enough to order those people out of that small room so that I could stay there alone. I felt very bad because I knew that those 40 people would experience an even worse situation whereas I would enjoy a room to myself. There was a trench with dudus within the prison cell, along which the sewage moved. The smell was terrible. You can image the smell and the 40 people who were there. I was alone but I could not stand it. However, since I had been held the whole night without sleeping, I actually fell asleep under those circumstances. Had it not been for my lawyers – a whole team of lawyers from Parliament including Sen. Murungi who came in the afternoon with a habeas corpus – my experience in that place would have been horrible. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to talk about the other police stations that I have mentioned. Although they were a little bit neater than the one near the Machakos Bus Stop, nonetheless, they were equally inhuman. I was held in and my shoes were taken away from me. They also took my belt because, I think, they suspected that I could hang myself using it. You were kept in a police cell for many days without brushing your 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."
}