A recent study on the Criminal Justice System in Kenya showed that about 30,000 prison inmates have been incarcerated for petty offences after they failed to raise the mandatory bail to
A past audit commissioned by the National Council on the Administration of Justice revealed that records at the stations showed numerous arrests but with few suspects taken to court. It also showed that a higher number of poor people are being jailed compared to the rich.
About 70 per cent of the cases taken to court are those related to petty offences like lack of business licences, being drunk and disorderly, creating disturbance, which can be classified economically or socially petty.
In January last year, former Attorney General Githu Muigai in a speech on Criminal Justice Reforms in Kenya acknowledged that “Our Prisons are populated by people who should not be in prison in the first place such as petty offenders.”
The move is likely to bring to an end arbitrary arrest by the police. Investigations reveal that police exercise a high degree of
Police, reports indicate, sometimes conduct shoddy investigations and usually release those with money. Do you think that is fair?