Kamiti Maximum Security Prison is a prison in
Nairobi
Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
, Kenya. The prison is within
Kasarani District, bordering
Kiambu County
Kiambu County is a county in the former Central Province of Kenya. Its capital is Kiambu and its largest town is Thika town. Kiambu County is the second most populous county in Kenya after Nairobi County. Kiambu County borders Nairobi and Kaji ...
. Originally named "Kamiti Downs", it sits in the middle of its own estates which lie fallow and untended.
Overview
During the 1980s and early 1990s many political prisoners were held at Kamiti, including
Hussein Onyango Obama
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017 dur ...
,
Kenneth Matiba
Kenneth Stanley Njindo Matiba (1 June 1932 – 15 April 2018) was a Kenyan politician and an activist for democracy who came in at second place in the 1992 presidential election. In November 2007, he announced that he would stand as a preside ...
,
Raila Odinga
Raila Amolo Odinga (born 7 January 1945) is a Kenyan politician who served as the Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. He was the Member of Parliament (Kenya), Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata Constituency from 1992 to 2013 and has ...
,
Koigi wa Wamwere
Koigi wa Wamwere (born 18 December 1949 in Rugongo, Nakuru District) is a Kenyan politician, human rights activist, journalist and writer. Koigi became famous for opposing both the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi regimes, both of whom sent hi ...
,
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (; born James Ngugi; 5January 193828May 2025) was a Kenyan author and academic, who has been described as East Africa's leading novelist and an important figure in modern African literature.
Ngũgĩ wrote primarily in Eng ...
,
Jonah Anguka and numerous others.
Many executions have been carried out in Kamiti. Mau Mau rebel leader
Dedan Kimathi
Dedan Kimathi Waciuri (born Kimathi wa Waciuri; 31 October 1920 – 18 February 1957) was the leader of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army during the Mau Mau Uprising (1952–1960) against the British colonial rule in Kenya in the 1950s. He was ca ...
was
hanged
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
by the British colonial administration on 18 February 1957.
Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu were executed there on 17 May 1987. No death penalties have been held in Kenya since, although
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...
is not formally abolished.
Daily Nation
The ''Daily Nation'' is a Kenyan newspaper. It was founded in 1958 and is published in Nairobi.
History
The ''Daily Nation'' was started in the year 1958 as a Swahili weekly called ''Taifa'' by the Englishman Charles Hayes. It was bought in 1 ...
, 7 January 2007: On death row for 31 year
/ref>
Kenya's prisons are infamous for poor conditions and inhumane treatment, although the situation has improved slightly during Mwai Kibaki
Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He served in various leadership positions in Kenya's government including ...
's government since 2002 and some prisoners on death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...
have been released. There is still no reliable water supply, with over 200 prisoners hauling buckets of water around daily. The inmates working in the "industry" section are paid only 10 cents (Kenya shilling) per day, as per the outdated 1940s legislation which rules the organisation.
Within the prison, condemned "G" block is famed for its particularly brutal lifestyle, characterised by predatory sodomy and mobile phone confidence tricksters.
The prison was built for 1400 prisoners, and it now houses over 3600 in poor living conditions.
On 17 November 2008, a search was carried out in G block for mobile phones which resulted in a brutal beating by the warders being captured on mobile phone video and given to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) is an autonomous national human rights institution, established by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Act, 2011. It is a successor to the body of the same name established by an earli ...
(KNCHR), and shown on Kenyan TV.
Kirugumi wa Wanjuki was the longest serving and to date last hangman at Kamiti. Wanjuki died in 2009.
In November 2009, at least eight prisoners died due to cholera
Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
outbreak at Kamiti Prison.[The Standard, 23 November 2009]
Eight prisoners die of cholera at Kamiti
/ref>
See also
* Thomas Cholmondeley
References
External links
African Tribute
Transfer
a poem about Kamiti Prison
{{Coord, -1.177, 36.894, type:landmark_region:KE, display=title
Prisons in Kenya
Nairobi
Execution sites