Eye for an eye. That’s what God told
the Israelites. Laws today are too lenient. Leaders nibble at the carrot
dangled to them by donors to disobey God. Retribution for crimes has little
meaning, and the President is the arbiter of denying justice; the man at the helm
of a system where thirst for power and pleasing the masters is baked into the
cake.
For me it was imprisonment as one
prisoner once told me, I was not different from him who was caged. I was the
chief warden Kamiti Maximum Security Prison then. I had seen the whole lot of
them—they never changed. Recidivism rate was high for death row and life
imprisonment inmates if, and when, pardoned. I felt that death row prisoners
should be executed immediately before the president was bribed with a donation
by the Westerners and pardon thousands on the election year.
The worst happened in 2009. Thousands
of convicted Kenyans awaiting their appointment with the hangman had their
fates reversed when in one swoop the president commuted their death sentences to
life imprisonment. The move was hailed as positive by the marauding
Non-Governmental Organizations and human rights activists—Kenya was moving towards
eliminating the death penalty. That’s when I knew the president did not have
the best interests for the country at heart, no politician does.
Twelve years later, in 2021, death
penalty was abolished. Immediately after the president signed into law a bill
that allowed prisoners to vote. The incumbent was eyeing the 2022 general
elections. Odds were against him securing another term, prisoners were to grant
him another five years in the much coveted State House if tampering with the
electronic voting system did not work.
I had just been appointed the Deputy
Commissioner of Prisons. The first batch of the death row inmates were released
that year’s Jamhuri Day. The ink had not dried on the presidential decree when
most of those released went back to their crimes. Despite what analysts said,
the same decree pardoning death row and life imprisonment inmates has been
going on every five years just before elections. If politicians did not care
for the victims who were forever scarred by the criminals they were releasing
to vote for them I decided to do something.
I entered into an agreement with
organized crime gangs and ‘rogue’
police officers who believed in natural justice. For prison aftercare programs,
the prisoners would be recommended to work at certain organizations that are fronts
for the gangs. The gangs would set them
up for crimes and blame them, then the rest is organized crime discipline—death
only. My army of rogue police officers would hunt the others, gun them down,
plant guns on them, and then the Inspector General of police would collect
medals in the media claiming that his mbois
have rid the country of another vicious criminal gang that was terrorizing the citizens.
Life is sacred; one who takes a life
should have his own life taken away, too. Most death row inmates are murderers.
It is in the interest of the society that the justice system should be
punitive, retributive, to them. No killer can reform, they never do.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Did you like the story? Leave me your thoughts, please. Thank you!!!