OUR SECOND VISIT TO THE PRISON-NO MORE ROYAL TREATMENT FOR US

We got a lot of positive feedback from my previous post about our visit to Kenya’s only Woman’s Maximum Security Prison. Most people are of the mind, like us, that you need to hate the sin and not the sinner.  In saying that, I guess no one is going to publicly criticise what we are doing and not that it mattered if they did.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion, it is what makes the world unique, it is how people accept each other’s actions that is the bigger picture.  We genuinely feel we are making a difference to these girls in prison, right or wrong on their part and today we were to head back for our second visit. 

Our first visit we were welcomed with literally open arms.  We were greeted and introduced to at least 4 senior staff members, a meeting with the BIG kahuna, the Officer in Charge, Madam O, and a one on one with the South African inmates in the personal office of Madam O.  We were offered soda or drinking water and it was probably the best introduction to a maximum security prison you could ask for, EVER.  Madam O did warn/remind us that our subsequent visits would not be like this one, so with this in mind Ms J and I made our way back to see the girls for our second visit.  While we still learn the tricks and trades of prison visits, what we can and can’t take, trying to fit in with last minute court visits and hospital visits, the last few weeks have been a little frustrating as we try and plan a trip and then finding out that they will not be there. 

A recap on the reasons why we are frequenting a prison when we found out that there were 5 South African women in the Langata Women’s Prison, just by chance, from a Belgian man who happened to be in court the same time as one of the women and he bought to the attention of the South African Women’s Association their plight.  Ms E was in a very distressed state and had been in jail for 9 days and had not seen any legal eagles and with no international phone calls permitted, literally, nobody knew where she was.  This wonderful Belgian man asked for a family member’s phone number in South Africa and made a call to notify them that she was in jail, he contacted the South African High Commission and also contacted SAWA (South African Women’s Association).  Since then, he has sent 300L of milk to the prison, put cash on each of the women’s ‘prison store’ accounts, delayed his trip back to Belgium by a few days and also arranged legal representation for one of the ladies before he left.  Ms J met him and his wife, along with a Kenyan friend for a coffee and Ms J said that you have not met a nicer couple in your life and they genuinely want to help simply from the goodness of their hearts, no strings attached.  IMAGINE!!!!!  People like that these days are a very rare breed indeed, and it is nice to have a little faith of humanity restored in what is becoming a very crazy world where planes are shot out of the sky and journalists have their heads cut off and people are executed in their work place.  Yes it is nice to see some good happening first hand.   

So what did the women do to land in a Kenyan jail?

They were smuggling drugs.  The hard stuff, cocaine.  The internet as always has given us some basic information about the women who were all caught transiting through Kenya with West Africa as their final destination, originating from Brazil.  Our group was a divided one when we were approached for help.  Some people were totally against helping AT ALL, some were wary and then there were a handful of us that just had to offer the hand of compassion.  I can understand all these sentiments to begin with.  People are scared of the unfamiliar, scared of what they have seen in movies about jail and the people in them, and there is a preconceived idea, if you are in jail, you have done something wrong.  Yes these girls have done something wrong and they will be judged and tried in a court of law, which is not for us to do.  I am also sure that they will punish themselves for the position that they find themselves in.  Life is about choices, they made a wrong choice and I am sure that they will regret that decision for the rest of their lives.  It is something that anyone of could have done, or a family member, we have all made stupid mistakes in our own lives and being caught in Kenya, as most countries; they do not take very nicely to drug smuggling.  I think it will take a miracle to get these girls out of jail, EVER.  As it is, one has been sentenced and she is now serving a LIFE sentence.  Life in Kenya means life.  She will literally die in this place and she will have to deal with her own demons every day.  BUT they are HUMAN BEINGS.  They are far from home, they have no access to basic and bare necessities such as toilet paper, sanitary napkins and underwear, no access to family and no access to just a good ol fashion talk, ‘foreigner to foreigner’.

Our group of 4 from our first visit shrunk to just Ms J and I for the second visit and we were okay with this, re lack of numbers, as we now had learned the ‘ropes’ so to speak under our belts.  We were sure the staff would remember us, and remember that we had been in Madam O’s office and hoped that would stand with some good stead on our return.  We knew that we would not have the same ‘royal’ treatment on this trip and we were kind of glad of that to a degree, as we were hoping to have some one on one time with the girls so that they would be able to speak more freely with us without the guards standing over us listening.  So there was still some unknown element to this visit, but it didn’t seem as daunting.  We drove directly up to the front gate this time, a little ballsy, but we were learning, and we were asked the nature of our visit and we told him who we were visiting and that Madam O knew we were coming, we were asked to wait.  We waited for what seemed an eternity and then a plain clothed man came to the car followed by an armed guard and he tried to get into Suzy Blue.  Luckily the doors were locked until we were able to establish that the plain clothed gentleman was the head of security of the prison and that he would stay with us for the duration of this visit.  We were handed security passes for the visit (we didn’t get these last time) and then the gates swung open with our new passenger in tow. 

Straight off the bat, we were shown into the remand carpark and not into Madam O’s car facility.  We parked right in front of the nursery and we could see little children all in blue and white school uniforms playing and was a reminder that their mothers were incarcerated and made me wonder if some of the children had never left the prison grounds?!  Imagine.  We walked to the remand building that consists of a large green metal door, a barred window to the right (like really thick chicken wire) where people are able to talk to the Madams on duty and where inmates also talk to their visitors, with 2 similar windows to the left.  The SO (security officer) must have had a secret knock, as he tapped on the metal door which opened and after a few swift Swahili words, a glance over from a Madam, we were asked to wait.  We were later to find out that if we use OIC (officer in charge) name, it actually causes more hassles as it seemed they had to get personal permission from Madam O for us to see the girls, where if we just come to visit, as normal people and not try and name drop Madam O, we would not have had these issues.  A tip for our next trip. 

We were only kept waiting for around 20 minutes when the metal door swung open and we were allowed to enter into the remand centre.  It was a little daunting as we were in a small corridor and not more than 10m away all the inmates were sitting, some of them staring at us, as they attended a church service and were singing songs that happens each Wednesday.  All it would take would be one crazy to rush us and we would be toast.  I had to tell myself that I had been watching too much TV and to take a chill pill.  We were asked for our ID’s which would be kept until we left and we were also asked to leave our phones as well this time.  We were then walked to the main office inside the remand centre that faced onto what seems to be the central/common area of the buildings.  We were given chairs to sit in as we waited for the girls to be collected and bought to us.  It gave us time to have a look around and not only for us to check the other inmates, but also for them to have a look at us.  I wonder what they think when they see people like us come on and visit.  Do they get sad?  Mad?  Plain curiosity?  The church service ended and then there was a very long queue past one of the office windows which we were to find out from the girls was the line to see the nurse and the dispensary.  There were a lot of Chinese women in the prison, 23 in total, who looked no older than 15 (but were tiny and actually 19) and then there was another mzungu older lady and when I asked about her, we were told that they were Iranian and there was a mother and daughter here and the dad and son were in the men’s prison being accused of travelling on false passports.  The rest of the women in the prison are made up of Ethiopians, Tanzanians, Kenyans from all tribes (this can cause friction) and a handful of women from other African countries.

The girls finally arrived and I have to say they all looked much better than what they did from our last visit, especially Miss E.  They were also provided seats and even though there were 2 madams that stayed in the office, with the noise of the women outside the open doorway and them busy doing their own thing, we were given the freedom finally to talk to the girls frankly and candidly.  I can’t really write about some of the things that we spoke about, for their own sakes and I guess also ours, as we learn the in’s and outs, some of the ‘inside’ information on how things work, the food they eat and their daily lives.  The notebooks and pens seemed to have quite a big impact and Miss E had written a letter for her mother and children, which Ms J will scan and email to her.  We were lucky, we got a lot of time with the women, around an hour, before we were given the time up and time to leave sign.  We had more care packages for the women this trip, so the SO took Miss A’s letter, we would have to walk to Madam O’s office, she would need to read the letter to make sure there was nothing on there that shouldn’t be, we would back to the car, get the bags and then get them checked and handed to the women.  Every time we ask them what we can bring the first thing is always toilet paper.  The top of the list each time.  It poses the obvious question of what happens when they don’t have toilet paper.  To give you a small window, they are not given underwear, so imagine after 12 months having only the underwear you had on when you were arrested, they are not allowed to wear bras, but it seems the tube bras are permitted and it wasn’t till after we left the first time giving the ladies sanitary napkins, if they didn’t have underwear how were they supposed to use them?  It is the small things that just make you think what kind of life, the quality of life they are living inside these walls.  There are 60 women to a cell, so I am assuming (hoping) it is a large quarters, and all the nationalities have been divided up into different cells, so the SA women are not all together.  We did ask them if giving them the items that we have to date, if it causes any friction between other inmates to which they replied no, as this was one of our concerns that we would be making life MORE difficult for them with visits and care packages, but it seems not.  Our ID and phones were returned to us when we left the inner sanctum of the remand centre and with a quick goodbye, we would be back in a few minutes after we saw Madam O. 

We walked to Madam O’s office, and waited our turn in line, as it seemed she was a busy lady with staff in and out of her office as we waited today.  She really does command a lot of respect from her staff, but I guess like any government institution, there is a pecking order, this is one is adhered to particularly well.  It was the SO that went in with the letter as we waited in the outer office and 20 minutes later we were given the go ahead for the letter and we walked back to the remand centre without her asking to see us.  Hmmmmmm where is the love?  We grabbed the bags out of the car for each of the girls and waited at the window to pass the girls their bags personally.  We have found if one of the girls can’t see us and we leave her bag, she doesn’t seem to get all the things, so if one of the woman aren’t there we aren’t leaving their bags anymore.  On this occasion they were all called back and one by one we handed over each individual item from the bags as they were inspected and given to the respective girls.  Nothing was given back or refused this time, so we are getting the hang of what is and isn’t allowed.  Two of the Madams were very nice to us and the girls said they liked those 2, but not all of them are that nice and like any place where there are multiple women whether it be a prison, family or a workplace, there are going to be people you don’t get along with, being in an enclosed facility and no place to run or hide makes this situation more heightened and also a power play with guards and inmates alike.  Not an ideal situation at all.  So with hand holds and squeezes through the chicken wire window to each of the girls, a promise we would be back and waves and smiles we left the prison with another successful prison visit.  The SO was also a great help in paving our visit for us and a BIG thankyou has to also go to him.  We dropped him at the front gate, surrender our passes and with his number programmed into our phone and a wave to him we exited the prison grounds, alive.  TV has a lot to answer to!       

Two VERY different experiences on two trips, so far.  It will be interesting to see what our third visit will be like.  We want to get into more of a routine with the woman and decide on visiting once a month on a particular day, so the women know when we are coming, their families know when we are coming and we also get into a routine and not this shuffling of days and postponements all the time.  It is just disruptive for all parties involved.  We also have 2 other women who are happy to donate money each money to buy supplies for the ladies, so we can try and keep them a little more comfortable where we can.