Prisoners can now attend funeral of their close family members, High Court rules.
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Prisoners can now attend the funeral of their close family members, if there are no compelling reasons denying them that right, the High Court has ruled.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi ruled that all sentenced prisoners and pretrial detainees held in custody have the right to be treated humanely which right include permitting them to attend funerals and burials of their close family members unless there are compelling reasons for declining granting of permission.
The Judge however noted that the said right was not absolute as such decisions to allow inmates to attend funerals cannot be made spontaneously.
“One of the considerations will be whether there are resources to facilitate the request and whether the burial will take place in the presence of those hurt by the prisoner’s crime,” he said.
According to the Judge, the security of the public must also be taken into account before the said decision is made. The judge directed the state to make rules of the persons deprived of liberty within the next six months.
Justice Mugambi delivered the judgment in a petition filed by ex-journalist Moses Dola, an inmate at the Kiambu GK Prison.
Dola filed the petition after his mother died and he wasn’t allowed to attend the funeral, a move he terms a violation and erosion of a fundamental freedom and right of prisoners.
The ex-journalist claimed he has been aggrieved by the lack of proper mechanisms and structures within the Kenya Prisons Service to allow room for convicted prisoners and remand inmates to attend funerals of members of their close families when bereaved
“I have been personally grossly aggrieved by the lack of such fore stated mechanisms, having suffered the loss of my biological mother in the month of July, 2021,” he had told the court.
Dola was found guilty of manslaughter on October 5, 2018, after Justice Roselyn Korir reduced the capital murder charge he was initially charged with. His wife, former NTV reporter Wambui Kabiru, who was a mother of one, was found dead on May 1, 2011 in the bedroom of their house in Umoja in Nairobi’s Eastlands area.
ENDS
