An inmate at the Ruiru prison. Some of them have called on the prison administration to allow them get ID cards from their families to enable them register as voters. [Photo: Matthew Ndung’u]
Inmates from the Ruiru prison have called on the prison administration to allow them request for ID cards from their families to enable them register as voters.
The inmates decried challenges in the ongoing voter registration exercise citing lack or identity cards and transfer of votes from the area they were registered before being jailed.
According to the officer in charge of the Prison, Assistant Commissioner of Prisons (ACP) Jonathan Maingi, there are 91 inmates in possession of ID cards out of the total 366. Maingi said that 100 others have their ID cards at home and the welfare department in the prison is doing its best to ensure they are delivered.
“More than 175 inmates will not vote as they have never applied for identity cards,” said Maingi.
“We have made arrangements to communicate to the inmates' families and ensure their IDs are delivered to the Prison so that they can register as voters but the time frame set aside for the inmates was so little,” ACP Maingi said.
He explained that the inmates have expressed their desire to vote but cited challenges of having registered outside the prison before they were arrested and prosecuted and thus cannot vote.
Johnson Wambua Mutisya- an inmate- said that he registered before he was prosecuted and called upon IEBC to consider helping him and others to re-register or transfer their votes to the Prison to give them a chance to vote.
“I would like to vote but I had registered before I came here. The government should improvise ways of transferring our votes to the prison so that we can vote or even register us again,” Wambua said.
Others expressed their fears that they could not vote in the prison if they are released after paying their fines before the elections and therefore denying them their democratic right; an issue that the officer in charge has refuted the claims saying that anyone that has been registered as a voter and is released before the elections will be accommodated to vote freely at the prison.
Maingi added that the prison management will not interfere or allow any politicians in the prisons before the elections time to ensure the decisions made by the inmates is from them.
“Those that will be released or bailed out before the general elections will be subscribed under the Prison so that we can identify and allow them to vote from here. We will not allow any politician to campaign here as we are giving the inmates a chance to vote for a Presidential candidate of their own. We will also not interfere in any way,” the officer added.