This archive report was first published on 14 November 2019.
Published on November 14, 2019, a constitutional court in Kenya has dismissed a petition by three ex-prisoners who were seeking an increase in prisoner wages.
The petition, filed four years ago, argued that current prison laws deprived prisoners of basic human dignity and subjected them to slavery.
Prisoners in Kenya currently earn 20 cents a day, or Sh6 a month, a rate that has not been revised since 1979.
The ex-prisoners also alleged that prisoners were not regularly provided with basic amenities like soap, toothpaste, and tissue papers.
A petitioner, Aloys Onyango, claimed he was never paid his wages after 16 years in prison and sought to compel prison authorities to pay him the Sh1,152 he was owed.
However, Justice Chacha Mwita dismissed the petition, stating that under the current laws, the prison payment scheme was at the discretion of the commissioner of prisons.
He also declined to order the correctional department to provide basic amenities for prisoners, but suggested that parliament may change the law and allocate a budget for these necessities.
