Prisoners in any country rarely get much sympathy from the general public. In countries which are relatively low on the socio-economic development scale, the lot of prisoners is often extremely unpleasant. Prisons are frequently overcrowded; sanitation is often inadequate or non-existent; food is frequently insufficient. The processes which consign people to prison in the first place often lack natural justice.
When disease strikes, prisoners often suffer the most. So it is with an outbreak of cholera at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Kenya. Since the outbreak of the disease last Friday, 13 prisoners are said to have died of the disease, and more than 50 have fallen seriously ill. 32 of the prisoners have been treated at Kenyatta National Hospital. It is feared that there will be an epidemic of the disease in the Nairobi slums.
The chief executive of Kenyatta National Hospital, Dr Micheni, has said that the disease may have spread as a result of unauthorised water vendors carrying water in tanks which are normally used for carrying human waste. The Commissioner of Prisons. Mr Osugo, said that some inmates may have contracted the disease in the courts and later spread it in the prison.