A former death-row inmate has revealed chilling details of his experience in the hands of unrelenting prison officers and guards.
Wilson Kinyua’s life took a dangerous twist right after he completed his secondary education and decided to look for a job in Nairobi, but ended up being imprisoned for 21 years.
Mr Kinyua was arrested during his first visit to Nairobi, back in 1998, barely a year after he had completed his high school education.
Robbery with Violence
Wilson Kinyua ( yellow collar) pictured with his siblings after his release
He claimed to have journeyed from his home in Nyahururu filled with excitement only to be caught up in a cross-fire between police authorities and armed robbers within the city.
Things took a turn for the worse as he was charged with robbery with violence, a capital offence for which he was convicted and sentenced to hang.
“I was not able to get legal representation and the judge only heard the narrative by the police to hear and make a determination,” Kinyua divulged to a local daily.
Cell next to hang-man’s office
He went on to reveal how Kamiti Prison broke his spirit with his cell cubicle right next to the hangman’s ‘office’.
“Many times we were stripped naked. The sight of nude men, young and old was just traumatizing.
My cubicle was adjacent to the hangman’s nooses and it had an opening to see the nooses, occasionally hear the cry of those being executed,” he disclosed.
Scrap of death sentence
However, a move by President Mwai Kibaki to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2009 gave him renewed hope about his future, prompting him to enroll for CPA, which he managed to get to section four.
His fresh impetus also saw him turn into a spokesman for his fellow inmates.
Law Degree in UK
It was during one of his vocal addresses that Alexander McClay – a UK judge, who was touring the facility noticed him and offered to sponsor the convict if he undertook a diploma in law at the University of London.
“McClay decided to sponsor me to study diploma in law in a distance learning arrangement with the University of London, which I cleared in 2014,” he divulged.
Clearly impressed, the UK judged further sponsored Mr Kinyua’s law degree at the same University.
Successful petition
Armed with new-found knowledge regarding the law, Mr Kinyua alongside, 11 other inmates, presented a constitutional petition before presiding Judge Luka Kimaru, against the death sentence and won.
He was then released on February 13, 2019, alongside five others whom he had personally represented when he appealed against all their previous sentences.
“I was the one who prosecuted the petition, doing both oral and written submissions.
I was heavily motivated by the fact that destroyed people have nothing else to lose.” he affirmed.
Hezekia Ochuka last execution case
The last hanging was in 1987, when the 1982 coup plotters Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu were court-martialled to the gallows. Since then about 2,000 Kenyans have been placed on the death row, but inexplicably, none has been hanged.
Official documents show that 1,925 inmates were on death row as of January 5, 2001. Of this,1,777 were waiting for their appeals to be heard, only 146 had their petitions finalised and awaited execution.
Of the 3,584 Kenyans convicted of capital offence-murder and robbery with violence-between 1963 and 1987, only 280 have been hanged. Within the period, 1,755 had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.