A total of 69 prisoners have been released from Garissa Medium prison to work in community service for the remainder of their sentence period in a bid by the judiciary to decongest prisons countrywide.
The Kitui High Court Presiding Judge Lady Justice Gitari Lucy Waruguru led the exercise for prisoners who had been sentenced by courts in Kitui County.
Speaking during the Event, Lady Justice Gitari urged the prisoners to live well with the community members, local administrators and police and warned them against violating their release advice by not going to work in their assigned areas.
She warned that those who fail to report to their community service stations would be rearrested and taken back to prison.
“We have had the responsibility this month to reduce prisoners in prison because the prison service has been lamenting that the prisons are congested. We are here in Garissa Medium Prison from Kitui high court because there are prisoners here who were sentenced by the courts in Kitui County,” said Lady Justice Gitari.
“We have looked at the cases of prisoners who can be released so that they serve their time from outside in the form of community service. There are 126 prisoners here and we have been able to release 69 prisoners,” she added.
At the same time, the judge noted that 11 more prisoners were denied release due to concerns raised by their parents, complainants, community members and local chiefs about their early release.
“However, we had 11 cases of prisoners we could not release because of probation reports indicating that the community, complainants, parents, police or local administrators advised against their release,” she said.
Garissa High Court Presiding Judge Justice John Onyiego, on his part, urged the communities to accept and incorporate the prisoners back into the communities without stigmatising them.
“It is not our wish as the judiciary to fill the prisons. I want to urge the members of the public that we, the prisoners, are released to work in community service; this is not to say that they have been freely discharged. This is a sentence just like any other, and when they come home, accept them so that they can feel at home,” Justice Onyiego said.
“Community Service sentence is legal and in our constitution. Let us accept them so that they can reform and avoid repeating the mistakes they made,” he added.
By Erick Kyalo
