Nairobi remand prison inmates.[Photo/Nation]
Some 3,100 files in Nairobi Remand Prison double the capacity are set to be reviewed, in a the new effort to deal with the backlog of cases in the facility.
This initiative is to begin across all remand facilities in the country, as the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in partnership with the Judiciary came together to address the issues leading to the congestion.
The Secretary, Public Prosecutions, Dorcas Oduor says the ODPP shall review all pending files in a 100 days stating that the effort is multidimensional and requires a multi-agency combination.
“Overcrowding in penal or correctional institutions is a natural consequence of a number of social realities,” she said.
“The exercise which begins today, and will continue uninterrupted for the next 100 days is aimed at determining the status of each of those cases and to establish what intervention the ODPP can make so fast as to fast-track the cases.”
In reviewing the files, she said they will, “want to know the ages and station of the remandees, how long they may have been there and the offences for which they are held.”
“Where bail or bond was ordered by the court, we would want to know why the remandee has not taken that course. In short, we will seek to explore the reasons why the population of remandees could not be scaled down.”
Oduor notes that the main goal of the exercise is to determine the main cause of case delays, identify cases that can be expedited, come up with feasible and practical strategies for the initiative to be successful.
Latest statistics released in 2010 indicated that the current inmate population is about 55,800 against an established capacity for 18,600