Kenya's striking prison warders win tussle with govt
NAIROBI (AFP) — The Kenyan government on Monday yielded to demands by thousands of prison warders on an unpredecented nationwide strike to demand better pay and welfare and urged them to resume work.
Home Affairs Minister Kalonzo Musyoka announced a 5,000-shilling (80-dollar) monthly risk allowance for the warders, similar to one recently awarded to police, as well as improved living and working conditions.
Warders who were roped in by overstretched police services during the country's post-electoral violence earlier this year were handed a one-off bonus of 10,000 shillings each (160 dollars).
The government vowed to speed up a much-delayed programme to build warders decent houses and give then new uniforms.
"The government has met their demands half way. We look forward to implementing the remaining part in due course. We expect them to resume duty," Musyoka, also the country's vice president, told reporters.
Musyoka conceded during a press conference that many warders were living and working in squalid conditions.
"What I did see yesterday, even upfront, I can let you know that it is appalling, it is unacceptable so many years after independence," said Musyoka, who visited a prison on Sunday.
He also said the government was probing corruption in the prison sector.
Earlier, a Kenyan court charged nine senior penitentiary officials over alleged actions during the strike launched by warders on Friday.
The nine officials were charged with inciting disobedience in the strike that paralysed Kenya's 89 penal institutions, but were released on bail until May 2.
"Investigations have shown they were accomplices. The senior officers appear to have had information long before the strike began but no action was taken to stop it. In some cases they even fanned it," a senior police official said.
"Severe displinary action will be taken against officers who defy lawful orders or those who will be found to have incited others to break the law," Musyoka said at the press conference.
The strike, launched to demand the same allowance granted to police, claimed its first victim Monday when an ill prisoner died in the western city of Kisumu after no prison personnel were available to take him to hospital.
