Their
rapidly failing eyesight have seen the sun rise and set over the high walls of
this heavily fortified jailhouse many times than they would care to count.
Although they have been here too long that memories of life outside prison are
now just a hazy past, the grandmother prisoners’ hunger and desire for freedom
is unfazed.
With most of
them incarcerated for life or condemned to hang for crimes of passion most of the
37 old ladies of Lang’ata Women Prison still believe that one day they shall
walk through the footpaths of their rural homes as free women. And their plea
to the country’s top decision-makers is one; freedom so that they can enjoy
their sunset days with their grandchildren.
“Prison life
is very tough for us old ladies because our frail bodies cannot cope with the
jail conditions, hence we are hit by many problems,” explains Francisca Ngina
Kagiri who landed in Lang’ata in 2005 after being found guilty of murdering her
husband. “We are pleading to the authorities to grant us mercy and release us
since we are now harmless to society. There no way a lady my age can commit
another crime”.
Many of
these aged women were overcome with emotions with tears rolling down their
cheeks freely as they narrated circumstances that landed them in prison, the
challenges of spending their last days in jail and the grandmotherly hunger to
spend time with grandkids by the fire place in their rural homes.
“I was
accused and convicted of killing my husband through circumstantial evidence just
because I was his wife. I know I did not do the act,” Ngina, 67, claims. “He
disappeared from home after leaving with his brother. He was found dead six
months later. As the next of keen I was accused and sentenced. That is how I
ended up here”.
She says she
used to run some taxi and tours company at the Jomo Kenyatta International
Airport through which “I paid four million in tax to the government”.
“There many
dietary challenges here for us old people because most of us like eating
traditional foods like sweet potatoes, yams, pumpkins and traditional vegetables
to age healthily,” Ngina, who says one of her two kids was murdered when she
was still in the prison, explains. “But in jail this is not possible hence most
of us are afflicted by lifestyle diseases. Personally I take a lot of medicine,
sixteen tablets in total per day, because I am arthritic and diabetic”.
Some of the
old prisoners, she says, have health problems that embarrass them among their
younger colleagues, which lowers self esteem and inflicts psychological
problems.
“Some
grandmothers here has bladder issues which means they can’t hold urine and end
up soiling their clothes, which makes them feel very shameful,” Ngina, who is
among the trustees and the unofficial spokesperson for the aged inmates,
explains. “Such issues should be happening to cucus (grandmothers) when they are in the privacy of their homes”.
When her
grandchildren visits its always very tough for them because they wonder why she
is staying in this strange place.
“I used to
lie to them that this is a school where one day I will go home to them but now
they are big and they have called off this bluff,” the elderly inmate, who also
composes the traditional songs that are performed during the prison’s cultural
days, says. “The eldest who is in class six is scared of being held here too
and always expresses those fears whenever we talk”.
Like Ngina,
Esther Wanjeri Kamau was also imprisoned for a crime of passion. She had
engaged in a violent physical confrontation with her husband from which he
died.
“I was
condemned to hang but after nine years my sentence was reduced to life
imprisonment,” the 81 year-old grandmother told the Daily Nation. “I have been here since 2002”.
She says
although the court says she spend the rest of her life in jail, She has a
strong belief that one day she will be free.
“My biggest worry
while here is the state of my children and grandchildren. I had eight children
one of which died and I couldn’t attend her burial because I was here,” Wanjeri
regretfully narrates. “My husband’s family chased our children from my land and
they now lead unstable lives”.
The old
lady, who was sentenced along her daughter who is also serving life sentence in
Lang’ata, says that she used to dance for President Jomo Kenyatta in the 1960s.
“I danced
for Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who gave me and my collegues five acres of land each in
Kiambogo in Gilgil. Even Jomo’s daughter Jane Wambui used to visit me in
Lang’ata a few years back,” recalls the grandmother of 28. “My prayer is to his
son Uhuru Kenyatta to remember grannies like me who are languishing in jail and
grant us mercy and freedom.”.
Her last
born daughter Alice Wangui, who was visiting during the interview, could not
hold back her tears as she explained the tribulations that the family has
undergone since her mother was jailed 18 years ago.
“My father’s
family grabbed our land and most of us are now squatters in various towns,” she
says. “I also stay with my deceased and imprisoned sisters’ children, and I
don’t have a job. It’s very tough”.
Unlike the
two old women who were accused of killing their spouses, Margrate Kavata from
Bungoma was incarcerated for the murder of a priest in 2009. She also claims
innocence and says that she was nailed by circumstantial evidence.
“I was a
casual labourer and I was just going around my daily business looking for work
when I happened to pass by a scene where the priest had been murdered,” the 58
year-old woman claims. “I was arrested, remanded then sentenced to death in
2010”.
Kavata says
although she doesn’t have any serious health problem like most of the other
grandmothers she deeply misses the things that makes an old lady happy like tendering
her crops in the garden by the day and telling stories to her grandkids while
sipping a cup of warm tea in the evening.
“I have
heard your situation and case and I will definitely make sure the message
reaches His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta as you have requested,” Wanini,
explained to the grandmotherly prisoners
after they presented their situation in emotionally charged traditional song
during Lang’atas cultural day. “As the oldest citizens here, you should also
impact some wisdom to the younger inmates so that when they go out there they
wouldn’t engage in activities that will bring them back here”.
She
explained that the authorities were looking into their case as senior citizens
