Three Die Of Cholera At Kamiti Prison

Three prisoners contracted cholera at the Kamiti maximum prison and subsequently died at Kenyatta national hospital shortly after admission. About forty others were admitted in serious condition.

Unfortunately, the man in charge of the prison has been denying the deaths and admissions even after the hospital had confirmed the fatalities and instead arrogantly told journalists that he was not a doctor.

This incident goes a long way to show that the governments efforts to make the civil service more friendly to the public is not getting to all places or they are still many thick skinned or thick headed public officials who will never understand what good public relations is.

What the prison boss does not know is that journalists are the worst people to display arrogance to and he will surely live to regret the big lie he told yesterday.

Warden Njuguna, is more of a liability than an asset to the prison department but according to him he must have thought he was doing the right thing by trying to conceal the deaths so as not to paint the prison in bad light.

This was the way of thinking during the Moi era where sycophancy, lies and deceit were the hallmarks of the civil service and promotions were actually based on how good you were in perpetuating the three in defense of the government.

It has been established that the disease outbreak was probably caused by a burst sewer line which was spewing waste near the kitchen and sleeping quarters of the prisoners. It could be possible that Mr Njuguna was aware of the problem but chose to 'bury his head in the sand' and not deal with it.

Unknowingly, it is characters like him who give the government a bad name as this are the types who will even attempt to convince you during the day that it is night if it suits their purposes.

The government spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua who also doubles up as the states public relations man should address problems like this prison mess and talk to the press instead of living everything to the arrogant Njuguna. This is a much better and effective way of building the governments image than distributing stickers saying 'najivunia kuwa mkenya' which Kenyans have changed to 'navumilia kuwa Mkenya', partly because of people like Mr Njuguna of Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.


A Kenyan safari of a lifetime at a price you will not believe.