Kenya: Death row prisoners threaten hunger strike

(SomaliNet) Kenya’s prisoners who are on a death row at the Kamiti Maximum Prison are threatening to go on hunger strike to force the institution to isolate a colleague who is suffering from tuberculosis.

About 700 inmates in (cell) Block G — occupied by condemned prisoners — fear they would all catch a strain of the disease described by doctors as multi-drug resistant from their sick colleague, a prison warden at the institution said on condition of anonymity.

A prison warden said that a month ago the prisoner, who hails from Machakos district, had been taken to Kenyatta National Hospital, where doctors advised that he be admitted to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Mbagathi, Nairobi
However, the robbery with violence prisoner was taken back to Kamiti instead.

“He was taken to the prison clinic but he was brought back to the cells,” said our source.

The prisoner is awaiting execution following his conviction on June 18, 2003. He stays with others in Block G where conditions predispose them to airborne diseases.

The cell block is designed to accommodate a maximum of 300 prisoners but is currently holding more than twice the number.

“The cells are poorly ventilated, dirty and stinking. Buckets, in which prisoners relieve themselves, are only emptied every morning. Prisoners are locked in every day at 6pm and are not allowed to go out until the next day,” said the source.

The warden said that the prisoner is also HIV positive and is on anti-retroviral drugs.

“I am not aware of the man you are talking about,” he said.

However, the source said the administration at Kamiti were at a loss what to do with the sick prisoner since it is the first time they are dealing with a case of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The situation is even more complicated by the lack of isolation facilities at the prison.

The prisoner, the source said, is withdrawn. “If he had powers, he would have isolated himself from the other inmates,” said the warden.

Speaking during the World TB Day in March this year, Director of Medical Services James Nyikal said that about 40,000 patients with the multi-drug resistant TB will be put on treatment at a cost of Sh2 million each. Four per cent of the 115,000 cases of TB in Kenya, Dr Nyikal said, have developed the multi-drug resistant strain.

He said a team of medical personnel had returned from training in Lativia on how to handle the disease.

MDR-TB is a form of tuberculosis that is resistant to two or more of the primary drugs — isoniazed and rifambin — used for TB treatment.

Experts say resistance to one or several forms of treatment occurs when the bacteria which causes TB develops the ability to withstand antibiotic attack and relay that ability to newly produced bacteria. Since the entire strain of bacteria inherits this capacity, resistance can spread from one person to the another.

However, inadequate treatment or improper use of anti-TB medications remains an important cause of the drug- resistant strain, which is difficult and costly to treat, and can be fatal.–Nation